JRC Technical Report: Reliability-based verification of limit states for geotechnical structures

With the adoption of the 2nd Generation of Eurocode 7 'Geotechnical design', Member States will need to implement new procedures in many different topics, not considered in the first generation, such as (1) the assessment of Representative values, (2) the Ground Model, (3) the use of Reliability methods, and (4) the implementation of design in the execution phase. CEN Technical Committee 250/Sub-Committee 7 (TC 250/SC 7) therefore decided to produce a suite of four guidelines, one for each of the most relevant new aspects.
These guidelines were prepared by four task groups within SC 7 and other outstanding experts in European geotechnical engineering, and are being published as a series of JRC Technical Reports. The aim of this series is to clarify the new concepts and methods in the transition from the first to the second Generation of Eurocode 7, and provide geotechnical engineers with didactic background material that could not be presented in the Eurocode. SC 7 officially presented the guidelines at the seminar 'Development of second generation of Eurocode 7' (Paris, 21-22 October 2024). 

Guideline 3 - JRC Technical Report: Reliability-based verification of limit states for geotechnical structures

A significant novel aspect of the second generation Eurocode 7 is the use in combination with reliability-based methods. This is likely to lead to a very important evolution of safety assessments in geotechnical design in the coming years. Eurocode 7, like other Eurocodes, is fundamentally reliability-based although safety verifications are tied to the application of partial factors. However, in the second generation of Eurocode 7, Clause 4 explicitly states that reliability-based design is only one of the options to verify limit states in geotechnical design. As these methods are not usually addressed in most of the teaching programs, the JRC Technical Report 'Reliability-based verification of limit states for geotechnical structures' provides the Eurocode users with a guideline to reliability-based verification of limit states coherently with the safety concepts of the Eurocodes, as well as information for code developers to perform reliability calibration of partial factors in the preparation of National Annexes.

The reports in this series are the first JRC documents sharing background knowledge and guidance supporting the implementation of the 2G Eurocodes. The other three guidelines are coming soon after this release.