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Fifteen years of geotechnical limit state design in Australia
By Robert A. Day, Patrick K. Wong, Harry G. Poulos
Part 1, Soil retaining structures
The paper gives a brief summary of the history of limit state design codes in Australia, the design principles behind limit state design, and some of the key aspects of retaining structure design where a lack of understanding of soil characteristics can lead to unrealistic designs. It concludes that there is definitely a place for limit state design in soil retaining structures, but there is still much work to be done to develop consistency of approaches that adequately address the probability of failure.
Part 2, Foundations
In this paper, the differences between Working Stress Design and Limit State Design (LSD) for foundation engineering are briefly described, together with a description of the factored resistance and factored strength approaches in limit state design. The benefits of limit state design in foundation engineering are illustrated through a number of examples involving a footing on stiff clay, a footing on medium strength rock, and a pile group.
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