The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Reliability approach to probabilistic modelling of contaminant transport

Jang, Yeon-Soo; Sitar, Nicholas; Der Kiureghian, Armen

UCB/GT-90-03, University of California, Berkeley, Geotechnical Engineering, 1990-07, PDF (5.7 MB)

A method for probabilistic analysis of contaminant transport based on the first and second order reliability approach is presented using one-dimensional finite difference and two dimensional finite element transport models. Reliability analysis of transport in a one-dimensional domain explores the influence of spatial variability and spatial correlation on the predicted probabilities of exceeding target concentrations. Results indicate that when variance of the hydraulic conductivity is large the first order reliability lacks sufficient accuracy and second order reliability analysis has to be employed. Reliability analysis of transport in a two-dimensional domain is performed to evaluate applicability to problems with two different limit state functions - concentration target and duration time target.

Available online: http://library.eerc.berkeley.edu/documents/GEOTECH/UCB-GT-90-03.pdf