Probabilistic Model for Collapse Prediction of Las Vegas Soils Available to Purchase

This study reports a probabilistic model for correlating laboratory measured collapse to in situ moisture content and dry unit weight of clays, silts, and sands found in the Las Vegas Valley. The data base was compiled from geotechnical reports of local projects. For each soil type, zones of collapse ranges are identified for in situ dry unit weight and in situ moisture content domain. Collapse data that belong to a specific collapse range are scattered in different collapse zones. Therefore, collapse predictions based on collapse zones are not deterministic. Accordingly, conditional probabilities based on the Bayes' Theorem are calculated indicating the reliability of the collapse predictions from the collapse zones.