Theoretical and Case Studies of Interval Nonprobabilistic Reliability for Tailing Dam Stability

Table 5

The advantages and disadvantages of the safety factor, the random reliability, and the nonprobabilistic reliability.

Methods	The considered parameters	Advantages	Disadvantages
Safety factor	The mean values of the mechanical parameters.	Easy to operate.	The uncertainty of the parameters is not considered.
Random reliability	The mean values and the probability density functions of the mechanical parameters.	The uncertainty of the parameters are considered; the reliability index and the probability of failure can be obtained.	Large amounts of data are needed to get the probability density functions, which consume much more manpower and material resources.
Interval nonprobabilistic reliability	The interval values of the mechanical parameters.	The interval values of the parameters are easy to get without the need of probability density functions; the reliability index can be obtained.