ABSTRACT
Uncertainties are unavoidable in geotechnical engineering, and they arise from loads, geotechnical properties, calculation models, and so on (e.g., Baecher and Christian, 2003; Ang and Tang, 2007). To deal rationally with these uncertainties in geotechnical analysis and design, several reliability (probability)-based analysis and design approaches have been developed for geotechnical structures (e.g., Tang et al., 1976; Christian et al., 1994; Phoon et al., 1995; Low and Tang, 1997; El-Ramly et al., 2005; Wang, 2011; Wang et al., 2011a,b). Although these efforts significantly facilitate the understanding and application of geotechnical reliability-based approaches, practicing engineers are reluctant to adopt them in geotechnical practice, at least, due to two reasons: (1) the training of geotechnical practitioners in probability and statistics is often limited and, hence, they feel less comfortable dealing with probabilistic modeling than working with deterministic modeling (El-Ramly et al., 2002); and (2) the reliability algorithms are often mathematically and computationally sophisticated and become a major hurdle for geotechnical practitioners when using geotechnical reliability-based approaches. It is, therefore, worthwhile for geotechnical practitioners to have a practical and conceptually simple framework that is directly extended from conventional deterministic modeling and removes the hurdle of reliability algorithms.
