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Reliability analysis of retaining walls with multiple failure modes

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Abstract

In order to reduce the errors of the reliability of the retaining wall structure in the establishment of function, in the estimation of parameter and algorithm, firstly, two new reliability and stability models of anti-slipping and anti-overturning based on the upper-bound theory of limit analysis were established, and two kinds of failure modes were regarded as a series of systems with multiple correlated failure modes. Then, statistical characteristics of parameters of the retaining wall structure were inferred by maximal entropy principle. At last, the structural reliabilities of single failure mode and multiple failure modes were calculated by Monte Carlo method in MATLAB and the results were compared and analyzed on the sensitivity. It indicates that this method, with a high precision, is not only easy to program and quick in calculation, but also without the limit of nonlinear functions and non-normal random variables. And the results calculated by this method which applies both the limit analysis theory, maximal entropy principle and Monte Carlo method into analyzing the reliability of the retaining wall structures is more scientific, accurate and reliable, in comparison with those calculated by traditional method.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Safety Engineering, Hunan University of Science & Technology, Xiangtan, 411201, China

    Dao-bing Zhang  (张道兵) & Chuan-qu Zhu  (朱川曲)

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, China

    Dao-bing Zhang  (张道兵) & Zhi-bin Sun  (孙志彬)

Authors
  1. Dao-bing Zhang  (张道兵)
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  2. Zhi-bin Sun  (孙志彬)
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  3. Chuan-qu Zhu  (朱川曲)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dao-bing Zhang  (张道兵).

Additional information

Foundation item: Project(2013CB036004) supported by the National Basic Research Program of China; Projects(51178468, 51174086) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Project(201102) supported by the Open Foundation of Hunan Key Laboratory of Safe Mining Techniques of Coal Mines, China

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Zhang, Db., Sun, Zb. & Zhu, Cq. Reliability analysis of retaining walls with multiple failure modes. J. Cent. South Univ. 20, 2879–2886 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-013-1809-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-013-1809-z

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