Reliability analysis of pile bearing capacity in clayey soils based on Monte Carlo sampling

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Ph.D Candidate in Geotechnical Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Pile foundations are one of the most important foundation systems in geotechnical engineering. The design of pile foundations and the estimation of pile bearing capacity have been improved considerably over the years. However, due to inherent soil uncertainties and disturbances, most theoretical approaches have been mainly based on assumptions and simplifications. Resulting in a wide range of bearing capacity values, different design methods establish the existence of inherent soil variability and model error in bearing capacity prediction. The cone penetration test (CPT) is considered as one of the most useful in situ tests for the characterization of soil. Due to the similarity between the cone and the pile, estimation of pile capacity from CPT data is among its most common applications. This paper proposes a model for predicting the bearing capacity of piles in clayey soils using data that were collected from 62 practical cases of pile loading tests and the corresponding cone penetration tests. The reliability of the proposed model was compared with other methods suggested in the literature. In order to evaluate the reliability of the proposed model, the Monte Carlo sampling method was used. Results show that the proposed model in this research, together with UniCone and Schmertmann methods, have the highest accuracy and reliability.

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References

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Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering
Volume 54, Issue 7
October 2022
Pages 2813-2828

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