Reliability Analysis for Bearing Capacity of Open Channel

The limit state design has been introduced into the design criteria for geotechnical structures. This paper attempts to apply the reliability design method at Level II to the bearing capacity of the foundations of open channels from the viewpoint of the limit state design. To examine the applicability of the proposed procedure for practical structures, the reliability index is computed for evaluating the stability of the foundations of existing open channels designed by the usual method. It has been proven that the existing design method is on the safety side by obtaining larger values for the reliability index to be computed as 5.0 for sandy soil and 3.0 for clayey soil.