New Method to Evaluate the Seismic Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Foundations Adjacent to Slopes Considering the Dilatancy Angle

A simple seismic slip line field theory and seismic boundary conditions are developed, and two types of the slope surfaces in the limit state (critical slope contours), i.e., concave and convex, are found. A new failure mechanism is proposed for assessing the seismic ultimate bearing capacity of a foundation adjacent to a slope when considering the dilatancy angle. The seismic ultimate bearing capacity assessed using the proposed failure mechanism differs slightly from the results of a finite element limit analysis, and the corresponding safety factor is close to 1.0. The proposed failure mechanism does not introduce a convergence problem for small dilatancy angles and does not require assuming or searching for failure models.