Abstract
The paper describes a series of reliability analyses that were carried out to determine the reliability index of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls. Sensitivity analysis results giving reliability index as a function of soil parameters were carried out and compared to conventional factor of safety approaches. Variables investigated in the reliability analyses included wall height and average and coefficient of variation (COV) of input soil parameters and seismic coefficient. Results of sensitivity analyses conducted with different average and COV values for the soil showed that the sensitivity of results to friction angle and seismic coefficient was much higher than for unit weight of the backfill.
