Reliability-tools in geotechnical design, an approach for river dike analysis

Reliability-tools in geotechnical design, an approach for river dike analysis

Pham Quang, T.
Vrijling, J.K.
van Gelder, P.H.A.J.M.
Thu, T.M.

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Water Management

2010-12-31

The application of reliability analysis in civil engineering is still an emerging technology, more so in geotechnical engineering and even more so in application to river dikes. However, much experience remains to be gained, recently, especially in European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom…) as well as in the United States of America. This paper focuses, only, on the general framework of reliability analysis in geotechnical engineering design and an example for river dike reliability analysis is illustrated. Reliability analysis is related to some other terminology such as: risk assessment, probabilistic design…etc but they all deal with analyzing the relevant uncertain parameters. Theoretically, the limit state function is defined as: Z = R-S; where: Z is the limit state function; R: strength; S: load. Both R and S combine many uncertainties, for instance, the inherent and epistemic uncertainty. The determination of the probability of function Z<0 with random variables (uncertainty) is the goal of reliability analysis. In the light of reliability analysis, a river dike ring is examined as a series system with many dike sections which have similar characters (geometry, geotechnical condition, protection area…etc). Considering each dike reach, there are several failure mechanisms such as instability, under seepage, erosion…etc, so all of them contribute to the dike breach probability with different levels. Practically, an example for a Red river dike section analysis is shown with some reliability methods ( FOSM, level 3, fault tree…etc) and the joint probability function for dike segments is formulated.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fa3618fb-02b4-460a-bd7c-21aedcd611cc

Vietnam National University

Proceeding of the international symposium Hanoi geoengineering 2010, Hanoi, Vietnam, 22-23 november 2010

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2010 Pham Quang, T.
Vrijling, J.K.
van Gelder, P.H.A.J.M.
Thu, T.M.