The present thesis is an attempt to investigate the interference effects on the magnitudes of the ultimate failure loads for a group of closely spaced strip footings and strip plate anchors. On account of an increase in the number of different civil engineering structures, footings and anchors are often need to be placed very close to each other. In such a situation, the ultimate bearing capacity/pullout capacity of an interfering footing/anchor becomes significantly different from that of a single isolated footing/anchor. The effect of interference on the magnitude of failure load is usually expressed in terms of an efficiency factor (%y); where £,y is defined as the ratio of the magnitude of the failure load for a strip footing/anchor of a given width in the presence of other footings/anchors to that of the magnitude of the failure load for an isolated single strip footing/anchor having exactly the same width. No rigorous analysis seems to have been carried out so far in literature to investigate the interference effect for a group of footings and anchors. In the present study, it is intended to use rigorous numerical upper bound limit analysis in combination with finite elements and linear programming in order to determine the collapse loads for the problems of both isolated and a group of footings and anchors. Three noded triangular elements are used throughout the thesis for carrying out the analysis for different problems. The velocity discontinuities are employed along the interfaces of all the elements. The plastic strains within the elements are incorporated by using an associated flow rule. The Mohr Coulomb yield surface is linearised by means of an exterior regular polygon circumscribing the actual failure surface so that the finite element formulation leads to a linear programming problem. In solving the different problems taken in this thesis, computer programs were developed using 'MATLAB' with the usage of 'LINPROG' - a library subprogram for doing the necessary optimization. The bearing capacity factor Ny for an isolated single rigid strip footing placed on a cohesionless ground surface has been computed and its variation with respect to the footing-soil roughness angle (8) has been examined in detail. It is clearly noted that an increase in 8 leads to a continuous increase in Ny. The solution is also obtained for a perfectly rough footing without considering any velocity discontinuity surface along the footing-soil interface. With 5 = <|), the magnitude of NY becomes almost the same as that for a perfectly rough footing. The size of the plastic zone increases with an increase in the values of 8 and <j). The obtained values of Ny for 5=0 and § compare quite favorably with the solutions reported earlier in literature. The ultimate bearing capacity for a group of two and an infinite number of multiple interfering rough strip footings placed on a cohesionless medium has been computed; all the footings are assumed to be perfectly rigid. It is specified that the footings are loaded simultaneously to failure exactly at the same magnitude of the failure load. For different clear spacing (S) between the adjacent footings, the magnitude of the efficiency factor (£,y) is determined. In the case of two footings, the value of E,y at S/B = 0 becomes exactly equal to 2.0, and the maximum ^occurs at a critical spacing (Scr). For S/B < Sor/B, the ultimate bearing pressure for a footing becomes equal to that of an isolated footing having the width (2B+S), and the ground mass encompassed between the two footings deforms mainly in the downward direction. In contrast, for S/B > Scr/B, ground heave is noticed along both the sides of the footing. As compared to the available theories in literature, the analysis presented in this thesis provides generally lower values of ^y for S/B > Scr/B. ' In the case of a group of multiple strip footings, the value of £y is found to increase continuously with a decrease in S/B. The effect of the variation of spacing on §y is found to be very extensive for small values of S/B; the magnitude of ^y approaches infinity at S/B = 0. For all the values of S/B ground heave is invariably observed on both the sides of the footings. The magnitudes of ^Y for given values of S/B and <|) for the two footings case are found to be smaller than the multiple footings case. The vertical uplift capacity of an isolated strip anchor embedded horizontally at shallow depths in sand has been examined; the anchor plate is assumed to be perfectly rigid and rough. The collapse load is expressed in terms of a non-dimensional uplift factor FY, the value of which needs to be known before calculating the failure load for an interfering anchor. The magnitude of Fr is found to increase continuously with increase in both embedment ratio (k) and the friction angle (<|>) of sand. Even though the analysis considers the development of plastic strain within all elements, however, at collapse, the soil mass just above the anchor is found to move as a single rigid block bounded by planar rupture surfaces; the rupture surfaces emerging from the anchor edges are seen to make approximately an angle <|> with the vertical. The vertical uplift capacity of a group of two and an infinite number of multiple interfering rigid rough strip anchors embedded horizontally in sand at shallow depths has been examined. At collapse, it is specified that all the anchors in the group are loaded to failure simultaneously exactly at the same magnitude of the failure load. For different clear spacing (S) between the anchors, the magnitude of the efficiency factor (£Y) is determined. On account of interference, the magnitude of 4y is found to reduce continuously with a decrease in the spacing between the anchors. For all values of X and §, the magnitude of ^y for the multiple anchors case is found to be always smaller than that for the two anchors case. In contrast to a group of footings under compression, the magnitude of ^v for a group of anchors is found to decrease invariably with an increase in $ for a given value of S/B. For S > 2c/tan<j) , the uplift resistance of anchors in the group becomes equal to that of an isolated anchor, and no interference is seen to exist; where d is the depth of anchor. By examining the nodal velocity patterns, it was noted that in the event of collapse, a wedge of soil mass just above the anchors and encompassed within linear rupture surfaces moves vertically upward almost as a single rigid unit with the velocity same as that of the anchor plate itself. On this basis, a closed form solution of the problem has been developed. The results from the closed form solution for the group of two anchors as well as for multiple anchors are found to provide an excellent comparison with the rigorous upper bound numerical solution especially for the value of § greater than or equal to about 35°. For all the problems taken in this study, it has been seen that an upper bound limit analysis in combination with finite elements and linear programming is a very useful numerical tool for determining the magnitudes of collapse loads.