Effects of the Determination of Characteristic Values of Soil Parameters

Abstract.

In April 1996 the German version of the Eurocode EC 7 “Geotechnical design - General rules” was published as a “pre-standard”, entitled V ENV 1997-1. It regulates stability analyses under the partial safety concept. Both the preface of V ENV 1997-1 and the National Application Document (NAD) for Germany refer to the package of standards “100” which is also required for calculations under the partial safety concept, since the data in the V ENV 1997-1 alone do not suffice for this purpose. Irrespective of the above, it was decided to switch over all German standards governing constructional engineering, including geotechnical engineering, to the partial safety concept. In this context the DIN V 1054-100 was transformed from the “100” package of standards into the new DIN 1054 “Stability analyses in earthwork and foundation engineering”. This article is intended to focus the reader’s attention on the special function performed by the determination of characteristic values of soil parameters in stability analyses under the partial safety concept. The above situation will be illustrated with the help of the calculation of slope failure.