Reliability based risk index for the design of reinforced earth structures |
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Authors: | Adnan A Basma Samer A Barakat Maher T Omar |
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Institution: | (1) Civil Engineering Department, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE;(2) Civil Engineering Department, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, University City, P.O. Box 27272, Sharjah, UAE |
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Abstract: | The design methods currently used for earth reinforcement are mostly based on deterministic properties of both the soil and
the construction materials used. Nowadays, however, the general trend is designing at a specific degree of reliability. This
is even more true where the raw data such as soil properties exhibit significant variation. Deterministic solutions, in this
case, may not suffice. Therefore, this paper will attempt to use probabilistic formulations thereby modifying the existing
design procedure of reinforced earth retaining walls to account for uncertainties and variabilities. Through a first order
Taylor's series expansion about the mean, the mean and variance of the strip reinforcing components, namely width and length,
are derived in terms of the variations in the soil properties. Design charts that enable estimation of both mean and variance
are developed to avoid extensive partial differentiation involved in the computations. Using appropriate probability distributions
along with the mean and variance, the final design outputs are determined for a selected failure probability by introducing
what is refered to as 'risk index'. The results indicate that the risk index increases with an increase in the coefficient
of variations and a decrease in failure probability. Furthermore, it is shown that in some cases, depending on the variabilities
of the soil properties, the classical design technique produced a relatively high failure probability.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | earth reinforcement failure probability Rankin reliability risk index |
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