Consider a weightless idealised soil. The failure criterion for this soil is ${}_f=c_u.$ The soil has an undrained shear strength of $c_u=40$kPa. A strip

footing is to be placed on the ground surface. Adjacent to the footing, a surface surcharge of $q=20$kPa is applied, as shown in the figure below.

Using the lower bound theorem, calculate the ultimate bearing capacity of the strip footing for both sets of stress discontinuities shown in the

figure below.

Ultimate bearing capacity for stress discontinuities shown below:

kPa

Ultimate bearing capacity for stress discontinuities shown below:

kPa