A Study On The Relationship Between The Factor Of Safety And The Reliability Index For Stability Of Retaining Walls

In retaining wall,the real safety level of retaining wall usually has some difference with the target safety level in design.This paper aims to find the optimal partial factors for a giving target reliability index and build a link between the allowable factor of safety(AFS)and the reliability index of retaining wall.The sliding failure and overturning failure mode will be discussed separately.In this study,the major uncertainties involved in the stability of retaining wall problem are addressed.Many retaining wall cases are taken by using a giving sampling strategy.Then the factor of safety and reliability index are calculated for each case.The results lead to a statistical relation between the factor of safety and reliability index.In partial factors design(PFD)of retaining wall,optimal partial factors should lead to minimal overall difference between the real and target safety level.Based on this rule,the partial factors for shear strength parameters are calibrated.The analysis results in this study,i.e.the optimal PF corresponding to a target reliability index and the actual reliability index corresponding to a specific AFS,can help to control the safety level in retaining wall design.