Reliability Analysis of an Embankment Built and Reinforced in Soft Ground Using LE and FE

Abstract

A coupling method is presented to integrate well-known geotechnical modeling commercial programs with a reliability one. Coupling enables us to use transformation methods, such as the first-order reliability method (FORM), to evaluate the reliability index (β) of a model, via the limit equilibrium (LEM) or the finite-element method (FEM). It was applied to a case study of a stage-constructed embankment on soft ground by considering two conditions, unreinforced and reinforced, to investigate its probabilistic stability. In addition, the value of β associated with a postconstruction settlement was acquired, and it showed one possibility that the coupling method is able to provide. The influence of the uncertainty level on reliability analysis was also analyzed. The outcomes were compared to the crude Monte Carlo simulation. As a result, the proposed approach was satisfactory, and the advantage of using it is presented; with a much lower computational cost than simulation methods, evaluation time may be up to 13.8 times faster than usual with great precision. Moreover, this approach can apply to other commercial programs widely used in practice.