Reliability Analysis of Heterogeneous Slope Considering Effect of Distribution Types

Reliability Analysis of Heterogeneous Slope Considering Effect of Distribution Types

Jiang, S.
Li, D.
Wei, B.

2015-10-14

The effect of probability distributions on the slope reliability is highlighted in this study since the lognormal distribution is often used to characterize the variability of soil properties to avoid negative values. A multiple response-surface based MCS method for slope reliability analysis in spatially variable soils is proposed. A heterogeneous slope consisting of three soil layers (including a weak layer) is studied to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method and explore the effect of probability distributions for soil shear strength parameters on the reliability of the heterogeneous slope. The results indicate that the proposed method provides a practical tool for evaluating the reliability of heterogeneous slopes in spatially variable soils. The difference in the probabilities of failure of the heterogeneous slope associated with the lognormal, normal, gamma and beta distributions is significant when the spatial variability of multiple soil properties is incorporated. In general, the probability of failure may be underestimated as the lognormal distribution is used for characterization of the random fields of soil properties.

probability distribution
heterogeneous slope
weak layer
spatial variability
reliability analysis

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:22715a9a-f82a-467e-bee1-97323f814284

https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-580-7-730

Conference proceedings

conference paper

(c) 2015 The Authors and IOS Press, Creative Commons CC-BY