Analytical reliability analysis of soil-water characteristic curve

Abstract

The Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC), also known as the soil water-retention curve, is an important part of any constitutive relationship for unsaturated soils. Deterministic assessment of SWCC has received considerable attention in the past few years. However the uncertainties of the parameters which affect SWCC dictate that the problem is of a probabilistic nature rather than being deterministic. In this research, a Gene Expression Programming (GEP)-based SWCC model is employed to assess the reliability of SWCC. For this purpose, the Jointly Distributed Random Variables (JDRV) method is used as an analytical method for reliability analysis. All input parameters of the model which are initial void ratio, initial water content, silt and clay contents are set to be stochastic and modelled using truncated normal probability density functions. The results are compared with those of the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. It is shown that the initial water content is the most effective parameter in SWCC.