ABSTRACT
Currently, the geotechnical community is mainly preoccupied with the transition from working or allowable stress design (WSD/ASD) to Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD). The term LRFD is used in a loose way to encompass methods that require all limit states to be checked using a specific multiple-factor format involving load and resistance factors. This term is used most widely in the United States and is equivalent to Limit State Design (LSD) in Canada. Both LRFD and LSD are philosophically akin to the partial factors approach commonly used in Europe, although a different multiple-factor format involving factored soil parameters is used. Over the past few years, Eurocode 7 has been revised to accommodate three design approaches (DAs) that allow partial factors to be introduced at the beginning of the calculations (strength partial factors) or at the end of the calculations (resistance partial factors), or some intermediate combinations thereof. The emphasis is primarily on the re-distribution of the original global factor safety in WSD into separate load and resistance factors (or partial factors).
