Bearing capacity of spatially random rock masses obeying Hoek-Brown failure criterion

This paper presents a probabilistic analysis to compute the probability density function of the bearing capacity of a strip footing resting on a spatially varying rock mass. The rock is assumed to follow the generalised Hoek-Brown failure criterion. The uniaxial compressive strength of the intact rock (uc) was considered as a random field and the geological strength index was modelled as a random variable. The uncertainty propagation methodology employed in the analysis is the sparse polynomial chaos expansion. A global sensitivity analysis based on Sobol indices was performed. Some numerical results were presented and discussed.