Abstract
Designing the geometry of soil slope is an effective treatment for preventing slope failure. How to deal with the uncertainties involved in soil parameters in geotechnical design is a main concern of geotechnical engineers. In this study, a robust geotechnical design for soil slopes (RGDS) approach was proposed, in which the Uncertainty Theory was introduced to describe explicitly the uncertainties involved in soil parameters. The uncertain reliability is often used to describe the risk of slope failure. The design robustness describing the insensitivity between the variation in the system response and the variation of input uncertain soil parameters was evaluated by the signal-to-noise ratio. The objectives of this design are to maximize the design robustness, minimize the excavation cost, and guarantee the safety (maximize the uncertain reliability). Therefore, the RGDS was formulated as a multiobjective optimization, and the optimal design can be determined based on the concepts of Pareto front and knee point. The proposed RGDS approach was illustrated through a numerical case of a two-layer slope design. The numerical results indicate that the RGDS approach is not only more intuitive and easier to follow but also more computationally efficient.
Highlights
Slope failure can trigger landslide and debris flow and cause significant damage to human life, buildings and infrastructure
Many uncertainties are generally encountered in slope stability analysis. e uncertainties in slope stability are mainly manifested in model uncertainty and parameter uncertainty [1]. e model uncertainty is caused by the difference between the actual behaviour of the slope system and its mechanical model
In slope stability analysis, compared with the parameter uncertainty, the uncertainty of the stability evaluation brought by the model uncertainty is much smaller [2]. erefore, the uncertainty of soil parameters is the main factor for slope stability analysis
Summary
Slope failure can trigger landslide and debris flow and cause significant damage to human life, buildings and infrastructure. In the probabilistic method, input soil parameters are assumed to be random variables that have certain probability distributions on the basis of statistical characterization, and output failure probability can be computed to assess the stability of soil slopes. Zhou et al [21, 22] applied the Uncertainty eory to estimate the stability of a slope In their uncertain method [21], soil parameters are regarded as uncertain variables, and the distributions of these uncertain variables are built according to the structure of the soil layers of a slope. A robust geotechnical design for soil slopes (RGDS) approach has been developed further based on the Uncertainty eory. A case of a two-layer slope is designed to verify the proposed RGDS approach
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