There is a large amount of geotechnical data. By putting it into a database, it can be applied to design reliable offshore foundations. The goal of this research is to improve the efficiency and transparency of the implementation of the previously developed reliability-based framework to streamline the process for analyzing and developing an offshore site in the Gulf of Mexico by looking at spatial variations among data sets. This thesis documents how to store soil behavior information in the database and how to use that information for offshore foundation design. The process is illustrated through observing the steps with figures provided directly from the database so the user can more readily use the database to produce results. This makes the database more transparent for the user to follow the flow of information from input to analysis and to follow the calculation process as well. Enhancements were also made to the database to provide a more readily accessible interface. There is now an allowance of data to streamline the data input process. There is also a set amount of fifty data points to be used in each spatially conditioned analysis. These detailed explanations and consistencies in data collection help the user to understand the models. This database provides a synthetic image of the site using both physical and statistical parameters where there might not be exact data at a desired foundation location. By providing the industry with a database that uses reliability-based design from actual data and spatial variation analysis, this project will continue to provide a more efficient design process. / text

The main aim of the present study is to evaluate the safety level of Turkish type precast prestressed concrete bridge girders designed according to American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Load and Resistance Factor Design (AASHTO LRFD) based on reliability theory. Span lengths varying from 25 m to 40 m are considered. Two types of design truck loading models are taken into account: H30S24-current design live load of Turkey and HL93-design live load model of AASHTO LRFD. The statistical parameters of both load and resistance components are estimated from local data and published data in the literature. The bias factors and coefficient of variation of live load are estimated by extrapolation of cumulative distribution functions of maximum span moments of truck survey data (Axle Weight Studies) that is gathered from the Division of Transportation and Cost Studies of the General Directorate of Highways of Turkey. The uncertainties associated with C40 class concrete and prestressing strands are evaluated by the test data of local manufacturers. The girders are designed according to the requirements of both Service III and Strength I limit states. The required number of strands is calculated and compared. Increasing research in the field of bridge evaluation based on structural reliability justifies the consideration of reliability index as the primary measure of safety of bridges. The reliability indexes are calculated by different methods for both Strength I and Service III limit states. The reliability level of typical girders of Turkey is compared with those of others countries. Different load and resistance factors are intended to achieve the selected target reliability levels. For the studied cases, a set of load factors corresponding to different levels of reliability index is suggested for the two models of truck design loads. Analysis with Turkish type truck models results in higher reliability index compared to the USA type truck model for the investigated span lengths

Design of retaining structures depends upon the load which is transferred from backfill soil as well as external loads and also the resisting capacity of the structure. The traditional safety factor approach of the design of retaining structures does not address the variability of soils and loads. The properties of backfill soil are inherently variable and influence the design decisions considerably. A rational procedure for the design of retaining structures needs to explicitly consider variability, as they may cause significant changes in the performance and stability assessment. Reliability based design enables identification and separation of different variabilities in loading and resistance and recommends reliability indices to ensure the margin of safety based on probability theory. Detailed studies in this area are limited and the work presented in the dissertation on the Optimum design of retaining structures under static and seismic conditions: A reliability based approach is an attempt in this direction. This thesis contains ten chapters including Chapter 1 which provides a general introduction regarding the contents of the thesis and Chapter 2 presents a detailed review of literature regarding static and seismic design of retaining structures and highlights the importance of consideration of variability in the optimum design and leads to scope of the investigation. Targeted stability is formulated as optimization problem in the framework of target reliability based design optimization (TRBDO) and presented in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, TRBDO approach for cantilever sheet pile walls and anchored cantilever sheet pile walls penetrating sandy and clayey soils is developed. Design penetration depth and section modulus for the various anchor pulls are obtained considering the failure criteria (rotational, sliding, and flexural failure modes) as well as variability in the back fill soil properties, soil-steel pile interface friction angle, depth of the water table, total depth of embedment, yield strength of steel, section modulus of sheet pile and anchor pull. The stability of reinforced concrete gravity, cantilever and L-shaped retaining walls in static conditions is examined in the context of reliability based design optimization and results are presented in Chapter 5 considering failure modes viz. overturning, sliding, eccentricity, bearing, shear and moment failures in the base slab and stem of wall. Optimum wall proportions are proposed for different coefficients of variation of friction angle of the backfill soil and cohesion of the foundation soil corresponding to different values of component as well as lower bounds of system reliability indices. Chapter 6 presents an approach to obtain seismic passive resistance behind gravity walls using composite curved rupture surface considering limit equilibrium method of analysis with the pseudo-dynamic approach. The study is extended to obtain the rotational and sliding displacements of gravity retaining walls under passive condition when subjected to sinusoidal nature of earthquake loading. Chapter 7 focuses on the reliability based design of gravity retaining wall when subjected to passive condition during earthquakes. Reliability analysis is performed for two modes of failure namely rotation of the wall about its heel and sliding of the wall on its base are considering variabilities associated with characteristics of earthquake ground motions, geometric proportions of wall, backfill soil and foundation soil properties. The studies reported in Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 present a method to evaluate reliability for external as well as internal stability of reinforced soil structures (RSS) using reliability based design optimization in the framework of pseudo static and pseudo dynamic methods respectively. The optimum length of reinforcement needed to maintain the stability against four modes of failure (sliding, overturning, eccentricity and bearing) by taking into account the variabilities associated with the properties of reinforced backfill, retained backfill, foundation soil, tensile strength and length of the geosynthetic reinforcement by targeting various component and system reliability indices is computed. Finally, Chapter 10 contains the important conclusions, along with scope for further work in the area. It is hoped that the methodology and conclusions presented in this study will be beneficial to the geotechnical engineering community in particular and society as a whole.