Stochastic analysis of beams on reinforced earth beds

Abstract

The present study comprises Monte-Carlo simulation assisted analysis of foundations resting on reinforced earth beds using the concept of beams on an elastic foundation, treating the modulus of subgrade reaction (MSR) as a stationary stochastic field characterised by mean, variance, autocorrelation function (ACF) and the autocorrelation distance (ACD). Realisations of the MSR, generated by solving a stochastic differential equation, are fed to a deterministic distributed parameter model to generate realisations of two dependent stochastic fields, namely deflection and bending moment in the foundation beam, and two random variables, namely the location of occurrence of maximum deflection and the bending moment. Subsequently these realisations are analysed to evolve probability distribution functions, variance and ACF of the dependent stochastic fields and the random variables. It is revealed that the ACF of these fields is independent of the ACF of the MSR. Further, variance of deflection is found to increase as the ACD of the MSR increases, implying requirement of a larger factor of safety when random soils display low frequency (macro level) variations. On the other hand, variance of the bending moment is larger at smaller ACDs of the MSR, indicating that for bending moments a larger factor of safety is required when the random soils display high frequency (micro level) variations.