Skip to main content
Log in

Stochastic analysis of strip footings on elastic layered soil

  • Geotechnical Engineering
  • Published:
KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Aims and scope

Abstract

In the present work, Monte Carlo simulation assisted analysis of strip footings resting on elastic layered soil has been carried out. The elastic modulii of soil layers have been treated as a stationary stochastic field characterized by mean, variance, Autocorrelation Function (ACF) and the Autocorrelation Distance (ACD). Realizations of elastic modulii (E), generated by solving a stochastic differential equation, have been fed to a deterministic distributed parameter model to generate realizations of dependent stochastic fields viz. settlement of footing and interfacial vertical stresses. Subsequently these realizations have been analyzed to evolve probability distribution functions, variance and ACF of the dependent stochastic fields. It is revealed that ACF of these fields are independent of the ACF of E. The variance of settlement has been found to increase as the ACD of E increases, implying requirement of a larger factor of safety when random soils display low frequency (macro level) variations. On the other hand variance of the vertical stress is larger at smaller ACD of E, indicating that for vertical stress, larger factor of safety is required when the random soils display high frequency (micro level) variations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abramowitz, M. and Stegun, I. A. (Ed.) (1965). Handbook of mathematical functions, Dover Publications, Inc., New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Azam, G., Hsieh, C. W., and Wang, M. C. (1991). “Performance of strip footing on stratified soil deposit with void.” Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol. 117, No. 5, pp. 753–772.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, R. (1984). “Modeling soil variability as random field.” Journal of Mathematical Geology, Vol. 16, No. 5, pp. 435–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, R. and Zeitoun, D. G. (1990). “Application of Adomian’s decomposition procedure to the analysis of a beam on random Winkler support.” International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 217–235.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, R., Zeitoun, D. G., and Uzan, J. (1989). “Analysis of a beam on random elastic support.” Soils and Foundations, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 24–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, J. and Pula, W. (2000). “Reliability with respect to settlement limit-states of shallow foundations on linearly-deformable subsoil.” Computers and Geotechnics, Vol. 26, Nos. 3–4, pp. 281–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breysse, D., La Borderie, C., Elachachi, S. M., and Niandou, H. (2007). “Spatial variations in soil properties and their influence on structural reliability.” Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 73–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brzakala, W. and Pula, W. (1996). “A probabilistic analysis of foundation settlements.” Computers and Geotechnics, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 291–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chow, Y. K. (1987). “Vertical deformation of rigid foundations of arbitrary shape on layered soil media.” International Journal of Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1–15.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, T. G. and Banerjee, P. K. (1978). “The displacement field due to a point load at the interface of a two layer elastic half-space.” Géotechnique, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 43–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton, G. A. (1999). “Estimation for stochastic soil models.” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol. 125, No. 6, pp. 470–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton, G. A. and Griffiths, D.V. (2002). “Probabilistic foundation settlement on spatially random soil.” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 128, No. 5, pp. 381–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton, G. A. and Griffiths, D. V. (2003). “Bearing-capacity prediction of spatially random c-φ soils.” Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 54–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton, G. A., Griffiths, D. V., and Cavers, W. (2005). “Resistance factors for settlement design.” Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 1422–1436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton, G. A. and Vanmarcke, E. H. (1990). “Simulation of random fields via local average subdivision.” Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, Vol. 116, No. 8, pp. 1733–1749.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, D. V. and Fenton, G. A. (2009). “Probabilistic settlement analysis by stochastic and random finite-element methods.” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 135, No. 11, pp. 1629–1637.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jimenez, R. and Sitar, N. (2009). “The importance of distribution types on finite element analyses of foundation settlement.” Computers and Geotechnics, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 474–483.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jommi, C. and Novati, G. (1989). “On the use of infinite elements in the analysis of two-dimensional layered elastic systems via discretized integral equations.” Computers and Geotechnics, Vol. 8, pp. 269–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, P. Pradeep and Maheshwari, P. (2011). “Stochastic analysis of strip footings on layered soil.” Proc. of Indian Geotechnical Conference, Indian Geotechnical Society, Kochi, India, pp. 875–878.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maheshwari, P. and Kashyap, D. (2008). “Rationalization of factors of safety in analysis of beams on geosynthetic reinforced random earth beds by Monte Carlo simulation.” International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 277–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maheshwari, P. and Kashyap, D. (2009). “Stochastic design of beams on reinforced random earth beds in deterministic mode.” Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 224–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maheshwari, P. and Kashyap, D. (2011). “Stochastic analysis of beams on reinforced earth beds.” Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards, Vol. 5, Nos. 3–4, pp. 207–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maheshwari, P. and Kumar, P. Pradeep (2011). “Probabilistic analysis and design of a strip footing on layered soil media.” Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 1099–1108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maheshwari, P. and Madhav, M. R. (2006). “Analysis of rigid footing lying on three-layered soil using the finite difference method.” Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 851–869.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maheshwari, P. and Viladkar, M. N. (2007). “Strip footings on a three layer soil system: Theory of elastic approach.” International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 47–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahmoud, A. A. and Tawil, M. A. El (1992). “Beams on random elastic supports.” Applied Mathematical Modelling, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 330–334.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Maier, G. and Novati, G. (1987). “Boundary element elastic analysis of layered soils by a successive stiffness method.” International Journal of Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 435–447.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Niandou, H. and Breysse, D. (2007). “Reliability analysis of a piled raft accounting for horizontal variability.” Computers and Geotechnics, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 71–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nour, A., Silami, A. and Laouami, N. (2002). “Foundation settlement statistics via finite element analysis.” Computers and Geotechnics, Vol. 29, No. 8, pp. 641–672.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phoon, K. K. and Kulhawy, F. H. (1999a). “Characterization of geotechnical variability.” Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 612–624.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phoon, K. K. and Kulhawy, F. H. (1999b). “Evaluation of geo-technical variability.” Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 625–639.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, L. and Freeze, R. A. (1979). “Stochastic analysis of steady state groundwater flow in a bounded domain 2. two-dimensional simulations.” Water Resources Research, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 1543–1559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanmarcke E. H. (1977). “Probabilistic modeling of soil profiles.” Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol. 103, No. GT 11, pp. 1227–1246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanmarcke, E. H. (1983). Random fields: Analysis and synthesis, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, G. and Yin, J.-H. (1999). “Finite element analysis of consolidation of layered clay soils using an elastic visco-plastic model.” International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 355–374.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Priti Maheshwari.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pradeep Kumar, P., Maheshwari, P. Stochastic analysis of strip footings on elastic layered soil. KSCE J Civ Eng 17, 1621–1629 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-013-0344-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-013-0344-7

Keywords

Navigation