Abstract
Shear strength of unsaturated soil is a very important topic in unsaturated soil mechanics. Shear strength is dependent on a number of variables and is highly amenable to probabilistic treatment. Probabilistic analysis of shear strength is used as an effective tool to evaluate uncertainty so prevalent in soil variables. In this research the jointly distributed random variables method is used for probabilistic analysis and reliability assessment of Fredlund’s shear strength equation. The selected stochastic parameters are effective angle of shearing resistance for saturated soil (’, angle of shearing resistance with respect to matric suction (b and effective cohesion of saturated soil (c’), which are modeled using truncated normal probability distribution functions. The stress variables i.e., net normal stress and matric suction on the plane of failure are regarded as deterministic parameters. The resultant probability density functions are compared with the Monte Carlo and Point Estimated methods. Comparison of the results indicates superior performance of the proposed approach for assessment of reliability of the shear strength model for unsaturated soils.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abramento, M., Carvalho, C.S.: Geotechnical parameters for the study of natural slopes instabilization at Sierra do Mar-Brazilian Southeast. In: Proceedings of the 12th ICSMFE, Rio de Janeiro, vol. 3, pp. 1599–1602 (1989)
Ang, A.H.S., Tang, W.: Probability Concepts in Engineering Planning and Design. Basic Principles, vol. I. John Wiley and Sons, New York (1984)
Baecher, G.B., Christian, J.T.: Reliability and Statistics in Geotechnical Engineering. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. (2003)
Fredlund, D.G., Morgenstern, N.R., Widger, R.A.: The shear strength of unsaturated soils. Can. Geotech. J. 15, 313–321 (1978)
Gan, J.K.M., Fredlund, D.G., Rahardjo, H.: Determination of the shear strength parameters of an unsaturated soil using the direct shear test. Can. Geotech. J. 25, 500–510 (1988)
Griffiths, D.V., Fenton, G.A.: Probabilistic methods in geotechnical engineering. Springer Wien NewYork (2007)
Hoel, P.G., Port, S.C., Stone, C.J.: Introduction to Probability Theory. Houghton Mifflin, Boston (1971)
Khalili, N., Khabbaz, M.H.: A unique relationship for the determination of the shear strength of unsaturated soils. Geotechnique 48(5), 681–687 (1998)
Lee, S.J., Lee, S.R., Kim, Y.S.: An approach to estimate unsaturated shear strength using artificial neural network and hyperbolic formulation. Computers and Geotechnics 30, 489–503 (2003)
Metropolis, N., Ulam, S.: The Monte Carlo method. Journal of the American Statistical Association 44, 335–341 (1949)
Morgenstern, N.R.: Managing Risk in Geotechncial Engineering. In: Proceeding of the 10th Pan American Conference on Soil Mechanic and Foundation Engineering, vol. 4 (1995)
Rosenblueth, E.: Point estimates for probability moments. Proceedings, National Academy of Science 72(10), 3812–3814 (1975)
Sowers, G.S.: The Human Factor in Failure. Civil Engineering, ASCE, 72–73 (1991)
Vanapalli, S.K., Fredlund, D.G., Pufahl, D.E., Clifton, A.W.: Model for the prediction of shear strength with respect to soil suction. Can. Geotech. J. 33(3), 379–392 (1996)
Whitman, V.W.: Organizing and evaluating uncertainty in geotechnical engineering. In: Uncertainty in Geologic Environment: From Theory to Practice, Proceedings of Uncertainty 1996, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 58, vol. (1), pp. 1–38. ASCE (1996)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Johari, A., Javadi, A., Zerangsani, F. (2012). Reliability Assessment of Unsaturated Soil Shear Strength Using the Jointly Distributed Random Variables Method. In: Mancuso, C., Jommi, C., D’Onza, F. (eds) Unsaturated Soils: Research and Applications. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31343-1_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31343-1_25
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-31342-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-31343-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)