Copula-Based Slope Reliability Analysis Using the Failure Domain Defined by the -Line

The estimation of the cross-correlation of shear strength parameters (i.e., cohesion and internal friction angle) and the subsequent determination of the probability of failure have long been challenges in slope reliability analysis. Here, a copula-based approach is proposed to calculate the probability of failure by integrating the copula-based joint probability density function (PDF) on the slope failure domain delimited with the -line. Here, copulas are used to construct the joint PDF of shear strength parameters with specific marginal distributions and correlation structure. In the paper a failure (limit state) function approach is applied to investigate a system characterized by a homogeneous slope. The results show that the values obtained by using the failure function approach are similar to those calculated by means of conventional methods, such as the first-order reliability method (FORM) and Monte Carlo simulations (MC). In addition, an entropy weight (EW) copula is proposed to address the discrepancies of the results calculated by different copulas to avoid over- or underestimating the slope reliability.