Análise de confiabilidade geotécnica de estruturas de contenção em balanço executadas em areia

Abstract

Geotechnical structures are subject to different uncertainties due to the natural variability of the soil and because of the limited knowledge of the several related events. The evaluation of these uncertainties is possible with the application of the reliability theory. Despite the discussion on this topic presented in international standards and scientific researches, the application of the probabilistic theory in Brazil is still unusual, especially for retaining structures. Accordingly, this work presents a study on geotechnical reliability of cantilever pile walls in sand. First, computational routines were developed for reliability analysis using the Python language. The first series of routines was developed to evaluate the reliability for the Ultimate Limit State (ULS) of the structure using FORM (First Order Reability Method) and Monte Carlo simulation. The second group of routines was devised to evaluate the reliability for the Service Limit State (SLS) using Monte Carlo simulation. A project of a cantilever pile wall embedded in sandy soil, which is typically constructed in the city of Natal/RN, Brazil, was analyzed using the computational routines. A parametric study was conducted based on this specific retaining wall. Particularly for SLS evaluation, the Plaxis 2D finite element software was used to obtain the horizontal displacement values of the cantilever wall. The retaining structure presented high reliability for the ULS with insignificant probability of failure for both probabilistic methods and great reliability index values for the FORM and for the Monte Carlo simulation. For SLS, the increase in maximum allowed horizontal displacements decreased the failure probability and increased the pile wall reliability index, in a linear trend. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the soil friction angle was the most influential variable in ULS and SLS in most cases. On the other hand, soil dry unit weight showed a low influence in all analyzed cases. Sensitivity methods coupled with Plaxis 2D exhibited satisfactory results for the implemented evaluations. Regarding the parametric study, the oversized embedment depth of the structure led to a reduced influence of soil property variability on reliability analyses. The effect of soil properties variations on the results was significant only for adopted embedment depth smaller than that actually executed. For a constant depth of excavation, increasing embedment depths decreased the failure probability found by the two probabilistic methods and increased the design points provided by the FORM. The use of lognormal distribution reduced the failure probability of the SLS analyzes.