Reliability analysis of slope stability considering correlations among soil hydraulic parameters

The statistics and correlations among the parameters of soil hydraulic property functions of completely decomposed granite soils in Hong Kong were studied. The reliability index of a 20 m high soil slope under two different rainfall conditions, i.e., long-term precipitation condition and rainstorm condition, were obtained using Latin Hypercube Sampling technique. The resalts show that the reliability of the slope with soil hydraulic parameters which have no correlation is smallest while the reliability of the slope with perfectly correlated soil hydraulic parameters is largest. Therefore, it is important to consider the correlations among soil hydraulic properties and adopt appropriate correlation coefficients in reliability analysis of slope stability under rainfall condition