Extensive research was carried out to clarify the bearing capacity of rubble mounds. This consisted of shear tests for rubbles by large triaxial apparatus, laboratory bearing capacity experiments by both a large scale model test and a centrifuge model test, field bearing capacity tests and investigation of the behaviour of actual gravity structures. The main conclusions can be summarized as follows:
　(1) The shear strength of rubble is largely dependent on the confining pressure. This can be approximately simulated by introducing apparent cohesion.
　(2) The ultimate bearing capacity by the simplified Bishop method agrees favourably with the results of both laboratory tests and field tests.
　(3) Damaged and undamaged structures for composite breakwaters and gravity type wharves were examined. The simplified Bishop method gave reasonable results.
　(4) The simplified Bishop method can be used for the unified formula for calculating the bearing capacity of a rubble mound including sub-soil under eccentric
and inclined loads.nt cohesion for rubble.