Reliability Analysis of Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations

Abstract

This paper presents a reliability analysis of the bearing capacity of a shallow foundation by the FORM method and Monte Carlo Simulations. A strip foundation posed on a coherent soil exposed to a concentrated vertical load was assumed. The probabilistic methods were used to estimate the failure probability of the foundation. A numerical example was conducted in order to test the applicability of the two methods in problems dealing with bearing capacity of foundations. The probability of failure of foundations was successfully obtained with both methods.