Influence of backfill soil shear strength parameters on retaining walls stability

Abstract

One of the problem of geotechnical engineering is the analysis of the retaining walls stability, where are several uncertainty sources. Some of these uncertainties relate to the inherent variability of fill soil, retained by the retaining wall, strength parameters. This feature can be quantified through a retaining wall stability probabilistic analysis using the Monte Carlo Simulation method (SMC), which enables to determine the wall reliability from collected testing shear strength information of existing soils in the cities of Coquimbo and La Serena, Coquimbo Region, Chile. An application example, the study of a cantilever retaining wall stability filled with silty sand soil (SM) with three different degrees of compaction (DC%: 80, 90 and 95%), with the objective to analyze the wall stability through statistical analysis of safety factors.