Reliability analysis of shallow foundations subjected to varied inclined loads

Monte Carlo simulation was used to study the effect of inclination factor on the reliability of shallow foundations. The variation of inclination factor was inspected by considering the variation of horizontal and vertical loads. Meyerhof’s bearing capacity equation was employed to formulate the performance function of bearing capacity of shallow foundations. A shallow foundation on cohesionless soils under various loading conditions was simulated. Friction angle of soil, horizontal and vertical loads were considered as non-correlated normally distributed variables in the study. The results showed that, probability of failure of the shallow foundation was less influenced by the variation of vertical load than that of friction angle and horizontal load. Reliability indexes of the foundation were derived with the probability of failure (Pf) using different methods. It was found that, when the limit equilibrium function is not normally distributed, for a given value of Pf, the value of reliability index varies with the method employed