The insufficient bearing capacity of the foundation at waste dumps can easily lead to landslides and other geohazards. At present, discrepancies between the calculated bearing capacity of such foundations and actual field performance are a major cause of these accidents. Therefore, further research into methods for accurately estimating the foundation bearing capacity of waste dumps to guide engineering practice is crucial for preventing such incidents. This study employs a combination of theoretical and case analysis to examine the current calculation methods. We discover that the calculated values are smaller than the actual values. Moreover, by taking into account both the upper load of the waste dumps and the bearing capacity of the lower foundation, we analyzed the main problems leading to the underestimation. In response to the aforementioned issues, this study suggests incorporating the Boussinesq equation into the calculation of the upper load to account for the load distribution across various slope forms and the diffusion and superposition of stress at different foundation positions and depths. Simultaneously, the foundation’s bearing capacity is calculated to increase with burial depth, aligning with the stress at different positions. Finally, a new method for calculating the bearing capacity of foundations at waste dumps was developed. The bearing capacities of the waste dump foundation and the weakest point determined using the proposed method are validated through a case study and FLAC3D numerical simulation. This study can provide a reference for calculating the bearing capacity of foundations in similar waste dumps.
Meng et al. (Thu,) studied this question.