Abstract
In a first section this paper discusses the spatial variability of the properties in natural soils and rocks. Simple statistics are proposed to reduce large quantities of measurements to a small number of numerical parameters, without losing the information about the spatial distribution of the analyzed property. The autocorrelation curve corresponding to an equivalent homogeneous medium appears to be totally inconsistent with observed actual curves for CPT and pressuremeter tests.
The numerical methods taking into account the spatial variability require to divide the domain into a large number of elements, and to attribute random (and correlated) properties to each of these elements. An original method is presented in the second part, allowing the use of large numbers of random variables, with a limited computing effort.
In the third section, the proposed method is applied to geotechnical problems. The conclusions stress on the various ways the results are influenced by the spatial variability of the material properties, depending on the type of problem.
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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Bolle, A. (1994). How to Manage the Spatial Variability of Natural Soils. In: Breysse, D. (eds) Probabilities and Materials. NATO ASI Series, vol 269. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1142-3_41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1142-3_41
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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