The bearing capacity of limestone strata roof containing a shallow buried spherical Karst cave

The chief objective of the article is to study the bearing capacity of limestone strata roof containing a shallow buried spherical Karst cave. Firstly, taking into account the effect of external load, stress field in the Earths crust, internal filling and the characteristics of Karst landform in China, a spatial axial-symmetrical model was established. Concurrently, Love displacement method was introduced, the expressions of stress components were gained. Subsequently, combining failure mechanism of ground collapse and the expressions of stress components, the bearing capacity calculation formula of limestone strata roof was determined. Finally, a comparison of calculation result was carried out, using the general solution and P-S method respectively. The result indicates the error is less than 5%, which meets the proposal standard necessity in practice. As a result, the research result would provide scientific basis for construction and operation of infrastructure in mantled Karst region in China