Safety Evaluation of Earth Retaining Wall Using Structural Reliability

摘要

This paper presents a method for evaluating the safety of gravity earth retaining wall based on reliability analysis. An analysis model of gravity retaining wall is presented, and the reliability indices are calculated for several failure modes. The method of calculating system reliability of gravity retaining wall is derived. An existing earth retaining wall, which is a real project in Northwest China retrofitted by the author, is used as numerical example, and the safety is examined using reliability based on a first order second moment method with 4 serially connected failure mechanism considered. Recognizing that the original retaining wall was under poor safety condition, an improved design was proposed by the author's research group and a retrofit was conducted accordingly. The numerical result shows that the method proposed in this study is convenient for engineering application, and the result may act as a theoretical basis for the selection of retrofitting strategy of the retaining wall structure.