Abstract
Three geotechnical examples of reliability-based design (RBD) are presented to illustrate that interesting and useful insights can be obtained from RBD conducted via the first order reliability method (FORM), and that RBD via FORM can play a complementary role to partial factors design approach. The similarities and differences between the design point in RBD and EC7 are discussed, and designs obtained from both approaches are compared. The effects of parametric correlations and the sensitivity information revealed in the design point of RBD are examined. The importance of distinguishing negative from positive reliability index in RBD is emphasized.