Reliability analysis of external and internal stability of reinforced soil under static and seismic loads

In this study, the reliability analysis of internal and external stabilities of Reinforced Soil Walls (RSWs) under static and seismic loads are investigated so that it can help the geotechnical engineers to perform the design more realistically. The effect of various variables such as angle of internal soil friction, soil specific gravity, tensile strength of the reinforcements, base friction, surcharge load and finally horizontal earthquake acceleration are examined assuming the variables uncertainties. Also, the correlation coefficient impact between variables, sensitivity analysis, mean change, coefficient of variation and type of probability distribution function were evaluated. In this research, external stability (sliding, overturning and bearing capacity) and internal stability (tensile rupture and pull out) in both static and seismic conditions were investigated. Results of this study indicated sliding as the predominant failure mode in the external stability and reinforcing rupture in the internal stability. First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) are applied to estimate the reliability index (or failure probability) and results are validated using the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) method. The results showed among all variables, the internal friction angle and horizontal earthquake acceleration have dominant impact on the both reinforced soil wall internal and external stabilities limit states. Also, the type of probability distribution function affects the reliability index significantly and coefficient of variation of internal friction angle has the greatest influence in the static and seismic limits states compared to the other variables.