Reliability Analysis of 3D Railway Embankment Considering Anisotropic Soil Spatial Variability and Train Load Distribution

The Random Finite Element Method has been used to investigate the influence of anisotropic spatial variability ofsoil shear strength on the failure probability and consequence of an idealized three-dimensional (3D) slope subjected to differentlengths of static surcharge loads,to give a simplified representation of a railway embankment subjected to train loading. For each studied case, the probability of design failure has been computed as a function of the factor of safety (FoS) based on 500 realizations. The results demonstratethecombined effect of the spatial correlation of soil strength and the load distribution along the slope length on the probabilistic characteristics of the system response.

Keywords: Railway embankment, Random finite element method, Reliability analysis, Soil spatial variability, Three-dimensional random field, Train load.