Effect of Spatial Variability on Buried Footings

Natural soil is one of the most variable materials as a result of physical and chemical changes. The variation in soil properties significantly affects the failure mechanism and bearing capacity of a footing. This effect is further complicated by considering the spatial correlation of the soil properties. The purpose of this study is to...

Bearing Capacity of Spatially Random Rock Masses Obeying Hoek-Brown Failure Criterion

In this paper, a probabilistic analysis is presented to compute the ultimate bearing capacity of a strip footing resting on a spatially varying rock mass. The rock is assumed to follow the generalized Hoek-Brown failure criterion. The uniaxial compressive strength of the intact rock (σc) was considered as a random field and the Geological...

Safety assessment of a shallow foundation using the random finite element method

In this paper, the reliability assessment of the bearing capacity of a shallow strip footing was conducted using a reliability index β. In applicable standards (Eurocode 7) there is not presented any explicit method of an evaluation of characteristic values of soil parameters. Therefore some approaches of an estimation of characteristic values...

Reliability of API and ISO Guidelines for Bearing Capacity of Offshore Shallow Foundations

The safe bearing capacity for offshore shallow foundations has been traditionally assessed using working stress design (WSD) methods (e.g. the API RP 2GEO guideline). Other codes of practice such as the ISO standard strive to provide designs achieving a desired target reliability level in the form of the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD)...

Computing the Reliability of Shallow Foundations with Spatially Distributed Measurements

In many geotechnical projects, field data is used to determine the soil parameters. In most instances, however, the statistical analysis is performed ad hoc and the spatial distribution of this data is not (expclitly) accounted for. A more formal statistical approach allows to make better use of the data and combine it in a consistent manner...

Effects of Soil Spatial Variability on Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations

This paper studies the effect of soil spatial variability on bearing capacity of shallow foundations. The stochastic soil property is the undrained shear strength considered as a non-Gaussian random variable. The random variable is simulated using Local Average Subdivision Method. A Monte Carlo simulation approach is followed in combination with...