Reliability based design of reinforced earth structures

Adnan A. Basma*, Ali S. Al-Harthy

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

The design methods currently used for earth reinforcement are mostly based on deterministic properties of both the soil and the construction materials used. This paper will tend to switch, out of necessity, to probabilistic formulations thereby modifying the existing design procedure of reinforced earth retaining walls to account for uncertainties and variabilities. Through a Taylor's series expansion about the mean, the mean and variance of the design parameters are derived in terms of the variations in the soil properties. Using appropriate probability distributions the overall wall reliability is assessed. The results indicate that in some cases, depending on the variabilities of the soil properties, a high safety factor may produce low reliability and thus unsafe design.

Original languageEnglish
Pages788-791
Number of pages4
Publication statusPublished - 1996
EventProceedings of the 1996 7th Specialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics and Structural Reliability - Worcester, MA, USA
Duration: Aug 7 1996Aug 9 1996

Other

OtherProceedings of the 1996 7th Specialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics and Structural Reliability
CityWorcester, MA, USA
Period8/7/968/9/96

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering

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