Currently, the geotechnical community is mainly preoccupied with the transition
from working or allowable stress design (WSD/ASD) to Load and
Resistance Factor Design (LRFD). The term LRFD is used in a loose way
to encompass methods that require all limit states to be checked using a
specific multiple-factor format involving load and resistance factors. This
term is used most widely in the United States and is equivalent to Limit
State Design (LSD) in Canada. Both LRFD and LSD are philosophically
akin to the partial factors approach commonly used in Europe, although a
different multiple-factor format involving factored soil parameters is used.
Over the past few years, Eurocode 7 has been revised to accommodate three
design approaches (DAs) that allow partial factors to be introduced at the
beginning of the calculations (strength partial factors) or at the end of the
calculations (resistance partial factors), or some intermediate combinations
thereof. The emphasis is primarily on the re-distribution of the original global
factor safety in WSD into separate load and resistance factors (or partial
factors).