Abstract
The design of soil consolidation via prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) has been traditionally carried out deterministically and thus can be misleading due to the ignorance of the uncertainty associated with the inherent spatial variation of soil properties. To treat such uncertainty, the use of reliability-based design (RBD) methods has been widely accepted in recent years for many geotechnical engineering problems. However, to date, little research has been done to consider soil spatial variability in soil consolidation by PVDs and more research is immensely needed. In this study, the effects of isotropic versus anisotropic spatial variability of soil permeability on consolidation of soft clay stabilized by PVDs are studied combining the local average subdivision (LAS) technique and finite element method into a Monte Carlo framework. The obtained consolidation responses are statistically analysed to produce probabilistic solutions for soil consolidation by PVDs, and a comparison between estimated probabilities of soil consolidation from isotropic and anisotropic spatial variable soil permeability is presented and discussed.