Uncertainty is present everywhere in geotechnical engineering and soil-structure interaction analysis: soil parameters are usually not known exactly, and also vary in space. Common practice consists in performing a deterministic analysis with "safety" factors. However, this technique does not give much insight into what the actual risk is. Today, a stronger integration of probabilistic approaches into safety assessment procedures and geotechnical computational mechanics in general seems appropriate.
This short course will give participants an insight into probabilistic approaches, uncertainty quantification, reliability, sensitivity and Bayesian analyses, and associated benefits with respect to a deterministic approach. Practical applications including typical geotechnical problems (slope stability, foundation bearing capacity, anchored wall) will be discussed and solved using UQLab (www.uqlab.com) and the ZSoil 2025 reliability module, ZSoil-R (www.zsoil.com).
