Soil-Structure Interaction in Spatially Variable Ground

The variability and uncertainty in soil properties propagate into uncertainty in the response of engineering systems involving soil-structure interactions. An important feature of geomaterials lies in the significant spatial variability in their properties, where the existence of strong and weak spots within the soil mass would lead to failure mechanisms that deviate from theoretical predictions based on assumptions of homogenized media. While spatial variability of material properties may be characterized by the scale of fluctuation, previous studies have found that many soil-structure interaction problems entail a certain ‘worst-case’ scale of fluctuation in soil properties, which leads to the largest discrepancy from nominal estimates of system responses by deterministic or homogenization approaches. This section presents some recent findings related to these phenomena and the key considerations in various geotechnical problems, including shallow and deep foundations, slope stability, and also excavation and retaining structures.