Limit analysis of bearing capacity of eccentrically loaded strip footing on clay with tension cut-off interface conditions

The influence of tension cut-off interface conditions on the bearing capacity of an eccentrically loaded rigid strip footing resting on a cohesive soil is investigated by means of finite element limit analysis. Rigorous lower and upper bound solutions are obtained to bracket the true collapse load to within ±1.5%. The interface conditions between the footing and the soil are modelled using zero thickness elements with appropriate yield properties to allow a variety of applications to be treated realistically. The footing itself is modelled as a rigid body. The solutions are presented in the form of failure envelopes and are compared against the results of previous studies.