Seismic bearing capacity of foundations on reinforced soil slopes

Different methods have been proposed for the analysis of the stability of reinforced soil. One of them is the method of characteristics, which treats the reinforced soil as a homogeneous but an-isotropic material. Soil masses are weak under the application of reversible/dynamic forces and reinforcing would be much helpful in these cases. In this paper, the idea of homogenization and the method of characteristics have been used to analyze the seismic bearing capacity of reinforced soil slopes. A new method has been used for deriving the equilibrium-yield equations along the characteristics, which is different from the conventional procedure used in the method of characteristics. A computer code has been written for the analysis, which calculates the geometry of plastic zone and the ultimate applicable load for the assumed material and geometrical characteristics of reinforced soil slopes. Non-uniform reinforcement and non-uniform distribution of horizontal or vertical seismic coefficients can also be considered in the analysis. Results of analysis of simple cases have been presented in the form of non-dimensional graphs to facilitate preliminary design.