Reliability-based robust design for reinforcement of jointed rock slope

Traditional reliability-based design methodologies often involve selection of design which is of lowest cost and satisfies safety requirements. But, this design is sensitive to variation in statistics of input parameters (noise parameters) and might become unsatisfactory if an underestimation of coefficient of variation of input parameters is made. A relatively new design methodology known as robust geotechnical design (RGD) is applied for the case of reinforcement of rock slope using end-anchored rock bolts. This ensures selection of a cost-effective and safe design for which probability of failure (P_f) of reinforced rock slope is least sensitive to the noise parameters. Reliability-based RGD approach involves evaluation of P_f for each design with different possible noise parameters. Finding P_f for the complex geotechnical structure is computationally expensive, and thus an augmented radial basis function-based response surface is used as a surrogate to the finite element model of rock slope. This response surface, being very efficient, also performs well for a range of values of noise parameters. Later, minimum distance algorithm is applied to obtain a cost-effective and robust design. Finally, a comparison is made in the costs between two robust designs obtained for different target probability of failure for the same rock slope.