Impact of sample path smoothness on geotechnical reliability

Abstract

The scale of fluctuation (SOF) of a spatially variable soil property has been known to be the most important parameter that characterizes the effect of spatial averaging, and the type of the auto-correlation model is thought to be of limited impact. This paper shows that this statement (SOF is the most important parameter) is true if the limit state function is completely governed by spatial averaging. However, this paper also shows that the sample path smoothness can have signifcant impact if the limit state function is not completely governed by spatial averaging. Three practical examples are presented to illustrate the effect of sample path smoothness.