Three-Dimensional Probabilistic Foundation Settlement
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 2
Abstract
By modeling soil as a three-dimensional spatially random medium, the reliability of shallow foundations against serviceability limit state failure, in the form of excessive settlement and/or differential settlement, can be estimated. The soil’s elastic modulus, , is represented as a lognormally distributed random field with an isotropic correlation structure. The settlements of individual and pairs of square footings placed on the surface of the soil are computed using the finite element method. A probabilistic model for total and differential settlement is presented and compared to results obtained using Monte Carlo simulation. The distributions of total and differential settlement are found to be closely predicted using the distributions of geometric averages of the underlying soil elastic modulus field.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, under Discovery Grant No. RGPIN0105445, and the National Science Foundation of the United States of America, under Grant No. CMS-9877189, for their essential support of this research. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the aforementioned organizations.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 2 • February 2005
Pages: 232 - 239
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 3, 2003
Accepted: Jun 23, 2004
Published online: Feb 1, 2005
Published in print: Feb 2005
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