AbstractThis paper describes a technique for computing rigorous upper bounds on limit loads under conditions of plane strain. The method assumes a perfectly plastic soil model, which is either purely cohesive or cohesive‐frictional, and employs finite elements in conjunction with the upper bound theorem of classical plasticity theory.The computational procedure uses three‐noded triangular elements with the unknown velocities as the nodal variables. An additional set of unknowns, the plastic multiplier rates, is associated with each element. Kinematically admissible velocity discontinuities are permitted along specified planes within the grid. The finite element formulation of the upper bound theorem leads to a classical linear programming problem where the objective function, which is to be minimized, corresponds to the dissipated power and is expressed in terms of the velocities and plastic multiplier rates. The unknowns are subject to a set of linear constraints arising from the imposition of the flow rulé and velocity boundary conditions. It is shown that the upper bound optimization problem may be solved efficiently by applying an active set algorithm to the dual linear programming problem.Since the computed velocity field satisfies all the conditions of the upper bound theorem, the corresponding limit load is a strict upper bound on the true limit load. Other advantages include the ability to deal with complicated loading, complex geometry and a variety of boundary conditions. Several examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proce