Sensitivity analysis may be used, in the context of soil mechanics, to find the contribution of each system component to the total stiffness of the structure. This paper introduces an alternative approach using the stochastic finite element method (SFEM). Through this method, the variations in input and output variables are utilized to define a factor referred to as contribution ratio. It is shown that the contribution ratio is a measure of the sensitivity of the displacement response of a system to the uncertainties in its material properties. The method is applied to a pile foundation as well as to a spread footing problem to determine the sensitivity of the foundation response to the uncertainties associated with the elastic modulus of each soil layer.
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