Bearing Capacity of Strip Footing on Spatially Random Cohesionless Soils with Eccentric Loading

Abstract

Over the past few decades, researchers have employed diverse numerical and experimental techniques to simulate the bearing capacity of a foundation within consistent soil compositions. In practical scenarios, soil properties consistently exhibit spatial variations, significantly influencing the foundation's load-bearing capability. This study explores an eccentrically loaded foundation's load-bearing capacity in spatially heterogeneous cohesionless soil. The investigation employs random lower bound limit analysis through the finite element method. The spatial distribution of soil is generated by discretizing the random field of internal friction angle using the Karhunen-Loéve (KL) expansion method. The stochastic response is determined using the Monte Carlo Simulation technique. The effect of load eccentricity for various stochastic parameters on the mean bearing capacity factor (μNγ), such as coefficient of variation of soil friction angle (COVϕ) and spatial correlation lengths, has been studied.