Effect of sample location on the reliability based design of pad foundations

Site investigations that aim to sufficiently characterize a soil profile for foundation design, typically consist of a combination of in situ and laboratory tests. The number of tests and/or soil samples is generally determined by the budget and time considerations placed upon the investigation. Therefore, it is necessary to plan the locations of such tests to provide the most suitable information for use in design. This is considered the sampling strategy. However, the spatial variability of soil properties increases the complexity of this exercise. Results presented in this paper identify the errors associated with using soil properties from a single sample location on a pad foundation designed for settlement. Sample locations are distributed around the site to identify the most appropriate sample location and the relative benefits of taking soil samples closer to the center of the proposed footing. The variability of the underlying soil profile is also shown to a have a significant effect on the errors due to sampling location. Such effects have been shown in terms of the statistical properties of the soil profile. The performance of several common settlement relationships to design a foundation based on the results of a single sample location have also been examined.