Abstract

Often developers build luxury buildings near shores, where foundations are built in or near slopes. Designers in this case face not only the determination of the bearing capacity and the settlement of the foundation but also the stability of a system made of foundation and slope. Design of foundation under these conditions is complex and the studies available in this regard are limited and concerned mostly about determination of the reduction of the bearing capacity coefficients associated with the presence of the slope except for Meyerhof who was a pioneer in developing a theory in 1957 to determine the ultimate bearing capacity of a foundation near a slope. However, the theory was independent of the slope inclination.

This thesis presents a numerical model using finite element technique together with RS2 9.0 software to simulate the case of a foundation near a slope, in terms of examining the bearing capacity of the foundation for given slope features, soil characteristics and geometry conditions and extends to determine the distance required to achieve reasonable factor of safety.

It’s found that the theory of Meyerhof, 1957 has underestimated the effect of the distance to the slope which the bearing capacity is independent of the inclination of the slope. Design guidelines and design charts are presented for practicing purposes.