Projection Method for Validating Reliability Analysis of Soil Slopes
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 6
Abstract
The mean-value first-order second-moment (MFOSM) method is the main method for estimating the reliability of slopes in practice. It is well recognized that the method occasionally underestimates the probability of failure for inhomogeneous soil slopes, but there is as of yet no commonly accepted procedure to identify this problem. This study presents a solution by projecting MFOSM results to obtain an equivalent most probable failure point in the material space as defined by Hasofer and Lind. A stability analysis using this material point then provides a check for the validity of the MFOSM solution. If the resulting critical factor of safety is one, the MFOSM results are valid; whereas, if a factor of safety of less than one is obtained, the reliability index is overestimated and the failure probability underestimated.
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Acknowledgments
The first writer would like to acknowledge the financial support (Grant No. 094JFA01022) of National Science Council of Taiwan for the opportunity to pursue this research at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 6 • June 2007
Pages: 753 - 756
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 14, 2006
Accepted: Jan 4, 2007
Published online: Jun 1, 2007
Published in print: Jun 2007
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