Undrained seismic bearing capacity of strip footings horizontally embedded in two-layered slopes

This study investigated the undrained seismic bearing capacity of strip footings embedded in two-layered slopes by finite element limit analysis (FELA); in particular, a pseudostatic method was specified to seismic loads. Lower bound theory (LB), upper bound theory (UB), and adaptive meshing technique are employed for exploring the effect of the shear strength ratio of top layer and bottom layer, c(u1)/c(u2); the horizontal embedment depth of footings, b/B; the footing locations (in bottom layer or top layer); seismic coefficient k(h); and the slope gradient beta on seismic bearing capacity. Results indicated that the seismic bearing capacity would increase with the growth of horizontal embedment depth of footings. The comparison between the predictions obtained from the proposed method and the existing method was presented, and the failure mechanisms are further summarized.