Stability analysis and design charts for a sandy soil slope supporting an embedded strip footing

Abstract In several field situations, especially in the hilly terrains, the construction of footings on slopes becomes essential. The factor of safety of a slope supporting a loaded footing on the crest is dependent on the position of the footing from the crest edge. Most studies in the past have focused on analysing the bearing capacity and settlement behaviour of a footing resting on a slope crest, but foundations in most infrastructure projects are usually built at some depth below the ground surface. Therefore, the availability of some form of design charts for determining the factor of safety of a slope supporting an embedded footing will be highly useful for the practising engineers. In the current work, the finite element analysis of a sandy soil slope supporting an embedded footing was carried out using the Plaxis 2D, a finite element-based commercial software, in order to examine the effect of slope geometry, soil properties, and footing locations on the stability of slope in terms of factor of safety. The results of the analysis show that the factor of safety of the slope increases with an increase in the footing edge distance, footing depth and soil relative density, but it decreases with an increase in the slope angle and applied pressure on the footing. Some design charts have been developed along with an illustrative example to explain how these charts can be used by the practising engineers