Antislip Stability Analysis of Gravity Retaining Wall by Probabilistic Approach

Abstract

In this paper, the antislip stability assessment of a gravity retaining wall is analyzed by considering the spatial variability of soils based on the theory of random fields. The effects of spatial correlation lengths of the soil/wall base friction coefficient and cohesion on the antislip safety factor of a gravity retaining wall were investigated. The numerical results indicated that the effects of spatial correlation length of the soil/wall base friction coefficient on the probability of failure (Pf) were greater than those of cohesion on the probability of slip failure. Moreover, when comparing different levels of failure probability, the antislip factor of safety corresponded to different constants when values of normalized spatial correlation length were relatively small. In other words, the antislip factor of safety increases with a decreasing failure probability, whereas the antislip factor of safety is essentially equal to 1 when the values of normalized spatial correlation length are relatively large. In addition, the numerical results obtained using the proposed method were in good agreement with those obtained using Monte Carlo simulation.