Estimation of soil strength parameters based on database with use of Hierarchical Bayesian Model

Abstract

The strength parameters for the geo-structures (earth-fill dams, here), effective cohesion, c′ and effective internal friction angle, Φ′ are predicted in this research based on the database. Although the number of the earth-fill dams is huge, in each earth-fill dam site, the numbers of the borings and the soil samples are very limited. For the current situation, the approach to compensate the information with each other between the database called generic data and the site-specific data, using Hierarchical Bayesian Model (HBM) is constructed here to determine the strength parameters for each site. Concretely, in the several specific sites, the strength parameters, c′ and Φ′ are determined from N values and the physical test data. By comparison of the predicted strength parameters with the measured ones, the accuracy has been validated, and it has been clarified that the practical use of the proposed approach is possible.