Use of a genetic algorithm to perform reliability analysis of unsaturated soil slopes

Journal article (2009)

Authors

Kenneth Gavin School of Architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering, Geo-engineering - , University College Dublin

J. Xue Tongji University

Research Group

Geo-engineering () (TU Delft)

Failure Suction Slopes Partial saturation

More Info

expand_more

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:44b0ad16-b9e8-44d9-b087-21c9633b8805

Published Date

01-08-2009

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Department

Geoscience and Engineering

Research Group

Geo-engineering

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a probabilistic design approach to analyse the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Instability of unsaturated soil slopes is caused by the downwards progression of a wetting front, which reduces the near-surface suctions, increases the weight of soil in the failure zone and reduces the soil strength. Assuming the slip surface forms parallel to the slope surface (at a depth equal to the wetting front depth) the probability of failure is determined in this paper through the reliability index determined using a computationally efficient genetic algorithm method.