Reliability-based design of cantilever retaining walls embedded in granular soils

Abstract

Variabilities in the geomaterials and design parameters in conjunction with simplifications and assumptions of mathematical analysis models lead to some errors in the process of design of cantilever retaining walls. Recently, there have been considerable advances in the characterization of the uncertainty and its application in the risk-based approach design. In this paper, the reliability-based analysis is used to investigate the variability of geotechnical properties in the design of cantilever retaining walls embedded in granular soils. The required embedment depth is computed using the limit equilibrium approach. A random model factor is developed to correlate the calculated depth with observed experimental results from literature. This random factor together with variability of soil properties is incorporated into the Monte Carlo simulation to obtain the probability of failure of the problem. Results are presented as the probability of failure of the wall for different cases of uncertainties.