An Investigation into Uncertainty Quantification of Shallow Foundation Failure Mechanisms in Horizontally Stratified Layered Soil Strata

In light of the evolution of computer science and computational mechanics, an uncertainty analysis of engineering systems has become increasingly feasible. In this paper, the failure of shallow foundations in layered soil continua is examined. It is shown that Gaussian input distributions lead to approximately Gaussian output response distributions even in the presence of an extensive nonlinear relationship between them. Soil configurations that provide larger average values and higher output variability in terms of bearing capacity force are those in which cohesive, stronger soils such as clays exist in the upper layers. Configurations with sandy soils in the upper layers, in several cases, provide greater average values of maximum displacements, rotations, and output variation. In this paper, the probabilities of the Meyerhof spline onset point are also estimated. Therefore, the proposed framework can support shallow foundation design decisions.