Reliability Analysis of Embedded Strip Footings in Rotated Anisotropic Random Fields

Abstract This study explores the influence of rotated anisotropy of soil property on the bearing capacity of embedded strip footings using the random finite element method. An extensive parametric study was carried out considering the different scales of fluctuations, embedded depths, and rotation angles of the random fields. Results show that for various footing embedded depths considered in this study, the major scale of fluctuation has a large influence on the probability of bearing capacity failure in all cases. Furthermore, the mean bearing capacity remains almost constant regardless of the change of rotation angle, while the probability of bearing capacity failure decreases with the increase of rotation angle. The significant role of rotation angle in probabilistic analysis highlights the need to understand and consider the soil layer orientation in geotechnical foundation design to achieve safety and reliability.