Reliability updating in geotechnical engineering including spatial variability of soil

Iason Papaioannou, Daniel Straub

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

106 Scopus citations

Abstract

At geotechnical sites, deformation measurements are routinely performed during the construction process. In this paper, it is shown how information from such measurements can be utilized to update the reliability estimate of the geotechnical site at future construction stages. A recently proposed method for Bayesian updating of the reliability is successfully applied in conjunction with a stochastic nonlinear geotechnical finite element model. Therein, uncertainty in the soil material properties is modelled by non-Gaussian random fields. The structural reliability evaluations required for the Bayesian updating are carried out by means of subset simulation, an efficient adaptive Monte Carlo method. The approach is demonstrated through an application to a sheet pile wall at a deformation-sensitive geotechnical construction site.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)44-51
Number of pages8
JournalComputers and Geotechnics
Volume42
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2012

Keywords

  • Equality information
  • Finite elements
  • Random fields
  • Reliability updating
  • Subset simulation

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