Settlement of Piles Founded in Spatially Variable Soils

This paper investigates the probabilistic settlement of a single pile founded in a spatially variable soil from a theoretical viewpoint. The goals of the paper are to a) derive a theoretical expression for the failure probability, i.e. that the pile design will result in an actual settlement which exceeds the design maximum tolerable settlement, and b) use this expression to derive the resistance factor required in the design process to achieve a maximum tolerable failure probability. The results of the paper are plots showing failure probability as a function of the soil’s correlation length, elastic modulus coefficient of variation, and design resistance factor. These plots can be used to determine the required resistance factor to use in the design process.