Probabilistic analysis of consolidation that considers spatial variability using the stochastic response surface method

To obtain more accurate and reasonable results in the analyses of soil consolidation, the spatial variability of the soil properties should be considered. In this study, we analyzed the consolidation by vertical drains for soil improvement considering the spatial variability of the coefficients of consolidation. The coefficients for the variation in the vertical and horizontal coefficients of consolidation in Yeonjongdo, South Korea were evaluated, and the probability density function (PDF) was assumed by the Anderson–Darling goodness-of-fit test. Standard Gaussian random fields were generated based on a Karhunen–Loeve expansion, and then transformed using Hermite polynomials in the random field with the log-Gaussian PDF of the coefficient of consolidation. The average degree of consolidation was subsequently calculated using the finite difference method coupled with log-Gaussian random fields. In addition, the stochastic response surface method (SRSM) was applied for the efficient probabilistic uncertainty propagation. A sensitivity analysis was performed for the input parameters of the random field, and the spatial variability was considered using random variables from the Karhunen–Loeve expansion as the input data for the SRSM. The results indicated that when considering the spatial variability of soil properties, the probability of failure for the target degree of consolidation was smaller when the correlation distance was taken into account than when it was not. Additionally, the probability of failure decreased when the correlation distance decreased. Compared with the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) results, the SRSM analysis can achieve results of similar accuracy to those obtained using the MCS analysis with a sample size of 100,000 (numerical runs), and a third-order SRSM expansion with only 333 numerical runs is sufficient for obtaining the probability with errors less than 0.01.