Abstract
The geotechnical community is shifting towards promoting sustainable technologies. One of the select applications in this domain consists of clays that are reinforced with natural or synthetic fibers. Extensive experimental work has been reported in the literature on the response/behavior of fiber-reinforced clays. This work led to, and/or was complemented by, several analytical and empirical strength prediction models. In this paper, an application involving the use of fiber-reinforced clays is selected for analysis from a reliability-based design perspective. The application involves a probabilistic assessment of the bearing capacity of shallow foundations on fiber-reinforced cohesive soils underlain by unreinforced clays of the same nature. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to quantify the impact of model uncertainty and inherent variability in the input parameters on the probability of failure of the foundation. Based on the results, recommendations are made regarding the required factors of safety and/or thickness of the "fiber-reinforced" replacement layer, which need to be adopted for the design of spread footings in order to achieve target reliability levels.