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Geomechanics and Engineering
  Volume 24, Number 2, January25 2021 , pages 167-178
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/gae.2021.24.2.167
 


Reliability analysis of strip footing under rainfall using KL-FORM
Suozhu Fei, Xiaohui Tan, Wenping Gong, Xiaole Dong, Fusheng Zha and Long Xu

 
Abstract
    Spatial variability is an inherent uncertainty of soil properties. Current reliability analyses generally incorporate random field theory and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) when dealing with spatial variability, in which the computational efficiency is a significant challenge. This paper proposes a KL-FORM algorithm to improve the computational efficiency. In the proposed KL-FORM, Karhunen-Loeve (KL) expansion is used for discretizing random fields, and first-order reliability method (FORM) is employed for reliability analysis. The KL expansion and FORM can be used in conjunction, through adopting independent standard normal variables in the discretization of KL expansion as the basic variables in the FORM. To illustrate the effectiveness of this KL-FORM, it is applied to a case study of a strip footing in spatially variable unsaturated soil under rainfall, in which the bearing capacity of the footing is computed by numerical simulation. This case study shows that the KL-FORM is accurate and efficient. The parametric analyses suggest that ignoring the spatial variability of the soil may lead to an underestimation of the reliability index of the footing.
 
Key Words
    spatial variability; Karhunen-Loeve expansion; first-order reliability analysis; footing; rainfall
 
Address
Suozhu Fei, Xiaohui Tan, Xiaole Dong, Fusheng Zha and Long Xu: School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China

Wenping Gong: Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China
 

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