Reliability-Based Design for Internal Stability of Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls

A parametric study was conducted using Monte Carlo simulation to assess how uncertainty in design parameters affects the probability of internal failure of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls. Bishop's simplified method was used to conduct the internal stability analyses. The results of the analyses indicate that the mean and coefficient of variation of the backfill friction angle, mean and coefficient of variation of the tensile strength of reinforcement, mean unit weight of the backfill, mean surcharge, mean reinforcement vertical spacing, and mean reinforcement length have a significant effect on the probability of internal failure of MSE walls. Based on the results of the parametric study, a series of additional simulations were conducted where the significant parameters were varied over a broad range. The results of these simulations were used to develop a set of reliability-based design (RBD) charts for internal stability of MSE walls. A method to adapt these charts to address model bias and model uncertainty is also presented. A MSE wall was designed using the RBD method and two other deterministic design methods. The required tensile strength of the reinforcement obtained from the RBD method fell between the strengths determined from the deterministic methods.