Sensitivity of Shallow Foundation Response to Model Input Parameters
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 3
Abstract
From a predictive point of view, it is desirable to characterize the effect of varying model input parameters on the seismic response of soil-foundation systems. In this paper, this issue is studied for shallow foundation systems in dry dense sand with varying vertical factors of safety, embedment depths, demand levels, and moment to shear ratios. Response parameters considered are the moment, shear, sliding, settlement, and rotation demands of the foundation. First-order sensitivity analyses indicate that among the soil input parameters, the friction angle has the most significant effect on capturing the foundation force and displacement demands. Furthermore, the uncertainty in friction angle contributes 80% of the variance of the settlement demand and 40% of the variance of the moment demand. It is also found that the uncertainty in Poisson’s ratio has a marginal effect in predicting the studied foundation response. Although the findings of this study are limited to the parameter space considered herein and care should be taken for broader applicability, it does shed light on which parameters uncertainty should be minimized.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Support for this work was provided by the EERC Program of the National Science Foundation, under Award No. UNSPECIFIEDEEC-9701568, through the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). This support is greatly appreciated. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsoring organization. Helpful suggestions from Professors Gajan, Kutter, Stewart, Martin, and Boulanger are greatly appreciated. Use of centrifuge data by researchers at the University of California, Davis, namely, Professors Kutter and Gajan, Key Rosebrook and Jose Ugalde, is much appreciated.
References
Boulanger, R. W., Curras, C. J., Kutter, B. L., Wilson, D. W., and Abghari, A. (1999). “Seismic soil-pile-structure interaction experiments and analyses.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 125(9), 750–759.
Chakraborty, S., and Dey, S. S. (1996). “Stochastic finite-element simulation of random structure on uncertain foundation under random loading.” Int. J. Mech. Sci., 38(11), 1209–1218.
Das, B. M. (2007). Principles of foundation engineering, Brooks/Cole, Pacific Grove, Calif.
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). (1990). Manual on estimating soil properties for foundation design, EPRI, Palo Alto, Calif.
Foye, K. C., Salgado, R., and Scott, B. (2006). “Assessment of variable uncertainties for reliability based design of foundations.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 132(9), 1197–1207.
Gajan, S., Hutchinson, T. C., Kutter, B., Raychowdhury, P., Ugalde, J. A., and Stewart, J. P. (2008). “Numerical models for the analysis and performance-based design of shallow foundations subjected to seismic loading.” PEER Data Rep. No. 2007/04, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), Berkeley, Calif.
Gajan, S., Phalen, J., and Kutter, B. (2003a). “Soil-foundation structure interaction: Shallow foundations, centrifuge data report for SSG02 test series.” Rep. No. UCD/CGMDR-03/01, Center for Geotechnical Modeling, Univ. of California, Davis, Calif.
Gajan, S., Phalen, J., and Kutter, B. (2003b). “Soil-foundation structure interaction: Shallow foundations, centrifuge data report for SSG03 test series.” Rep. No. UCD/CGMDR-03/02, Center for Geotechnical Modeling, Univ. of California, Davis, Calif.
Gajan, S., Thomas, J. M., and Kutter, B. L. (2006). “Soil-foundation-structure interaction: Shallow foundations.” Rep. No. UCD/CGMDR-05/02, Center for Geotechnical Modeling, Univ. of California, Davis, Calif.
Gazetas, G. (1991). Foundation engineering handbook, H. Y. Fang, ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Harden, C. W., and Hutchinson, T. C. (2009). “Beam-on-nonlinear-Winkler-Foundation modeling of shallow, rocking-dominated footings.” Earthquake Spectra, 25(2), 277–300.
Harden, C. W., Hutchinson, T. C., Martin, G. R., and Kutter, B. L. (2005). “Numerical modeling of the nonlinear cyclic response of shallow foundations.” Rep. No. 2005/04, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), Berkeley, Calif.
Jones, A. L., Kramer, S. L., and Arduino, P. (2002). “Estimation of uncertainty in geotechnical properties for performance-based earthquake engineering.” Rep. No. 2002/16, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), Berkeley, Calif.
Lumb, P. (1966). “The variability of natural soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 3, 74–97.
Lutes, L. D., Sarkani, S., and Jin, S. (2000). “Response variability of an SSI system with uncertain structural and soil properties.” Eng. Struct., 22, 605–620.
Meyerhof, G. G. (1963). “Some recent research on the bearing capacity of foundations.” Can. Geotech. J., 1(1), 16–26.
Na, U. J., Ray Chaudhuri, S., and Shinozuka, M. (2008). “Probabilistic assessment for seismic performance of port structures.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng., 28, 147–158.
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). (2008). “Open system for earthquake engineering simulation: OpenSees.” Univ. of California, Berkeley, ⟨http://opensees.berkeley.edu⟩ (Jan. 16, 2009).
Ray Chaudhuri, S., and Gupta, V. K. (2002). “Variability in seismic response of secondary systems due to uncertain soil properties.” Eng. Struct., 24, 1601–1613.
Raychowdhury, P. (2008). “Nonlinear Winkler-based shallow foundation model for performance assessment of seismically loaded structures.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of California, San Diego.
Raychowdhury, P., and Hutchinson, T. C. (2009). “Performance evaluation of a nonlinear Winkler based shallow foundation model using centrifuge test results.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 38, 679–698.
Salgado, R. (2006). The engineering of foundations, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Terzaghi, K. (1943). Theoretical soil mechanics, Wiley, New York.
Ugalde, J. A., Kutter, B. L., Jeremic, B., and Gajan, S. (2007). “Centrifuge modeling of rocking behavior of structures on shallow foundations.” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 10, 2009
Accepted: Aug 22, 2009
Published online: Feb 12, 2010
Published in print: Mar 2010
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.