• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.901-919
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• 1998

Most reliability-based analyses focus on the reliability of the individual components of a structure. There are many advantages to examining the components in combination as an entire structural system. This paper illustrates an algorithm used in the computer program RELSYS (RELiability of SYStems) which computes the system reliability of any structure which can be modeled as a series-parallel combination of its components. A first-order method is used to initially compute the reliability of each individual component. The system reliability is computed by successively reducing the series and parallel systems until the system has been simplified to a single equivalent component. Equivalent alpha vectors are used to account for the correlation between failure modes during the system reduction process.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.4
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• pp.429-441
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• 2022

A probabilistic assessment of the seismic-excited buildings with a multiple-tuned-mass-damper (MTMD) system is carried out in the presence of uncertainties of the structural model, MTMD system, and the stochastic model of the seismic excitations. A free search optimization procedure of the individual mass, stiffness and, damping parameters of the MTMD system based on the snap-drift cuckoo search (SDCS) optimization algorithm is proposed for the optimal design of the MTMD system. Considering a 10-story structure in three cases equipped with single tuned mass damper (STMS), 5-TMD and 10-TMD, sensitivity analyses are carried out using Sobol' indices based on the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method. Considering different seismic performance levels, the reliability analyses are done using MCS and kriging-based MCS methods. The results show the maximum structural responses are more affected by changes in the PGA and the stiffness coefficients of the structural floors and TMDs. The results indicate the kriging-based MCS method can estimate the accurate amount of failure probability by spending less time than the MCS. The results also show the MTMD gives a significant reduction in the structural failure probability. The effect of the MTMD on the reduction of the failure probability is remarkable in the performance levels of life safety and collapse prevention. The maximum drift of floors may be reduced for the nominal structural system by increasing the TMDs, however, the complexity of the MTMD model and increasing its corresponding uncertainty sources can be caused a slight increase in the failure probability of the structure.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3A
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• pp.193-200
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• 2010

Structural design requires simultaneously to ensure safety by considering quantitatively uncertainties in the applied loadings, material properties and fabrication error and to maximize economical efficiency. As a solution, system reliability-based design optimization (SRBDO), which takes into consideration both uncertainties and economical efficiency, has been extensively researched and numerous attempts have been done to apply it to structural design. Contrary to conventional deterministic optimization, SRBDO involves the evaluation of component and system probabilistic constraints. However, because of the complicated algorithm for calculating component reliability indices and system reliability, excessive computational time is required when the large-scale finite element analysis is involved in evaluating the probabilistic constraints. Accordingly, an algorithm for SRBDO exhibiting improved stability and efficiency needs to be developed for the large-scale problems. In this study, a more stable and efficient SRBDO based on the performance measure approach (PMA) is developed. PMA shows good performance when it is applied to reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) which has only component probabilistic constraints. However, PMA could not be applied to SRBDO because PMA only calculates the probabilistic performance measure for limit state functions and does not evaluate the reliability indices. In order to overcome these difficulties, the decoupled algorithm is proposed where RBDO based on PMA is sequentially performed with updated target component reliability indices until the calculated system reliability index approaches the target system reliability index. Through a mathematical problem and ten-bar truss problem, the proposed method shows better convergence and efficiency than other approaches.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.602-607
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• 2008

A technique for reliability-based design optimization(RBDO) is developed based on the Bayesian approach, which can deal with the epistemic uncertainty arising due to the limited number of data. Until recently, the conventional RBDO was implemented mostly by assuming the uncertainty as aleatory which means the statistical properties are completely known. In practice, however, this is not the case due to the insufficient data for estimating the statistical information, which makes the existing RBDO methods less useful. In this study, a Bayesian reliability is introduced to take account of the epistemic uncertainty, which is defined as the lower confidence bound of the probability distribution of the original reliability. In this case, the Bayesian reliability requires double loop of the conventional reliability analyses, which can be computationally expensive. Kriging based dimension reduction method(KDRM), which is a new efficient tool for the reliability analysis, is employed to this end. The proposed method is illustrated using a couple of numerical examples.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.1A
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• pp.45-52
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• 2009

In conventional structural design, deterministic optimization which satisfies codified constraints is performed to ensure safety and maximize economical efficiency. However, uncertainties are inevitable due to the stochastic nature of structural materials and applied loads. Thus, deterministic optimization without considering these uncertainties could lead to unreliable design. Recently, there has been much research in reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) taking into consideration both the reliability and optimization. RBDO involves the evaluation of probabilistic constraint that can be estimated using the RIA (Reliability Index Approach) and the PMA(Performance Measure Approach). It is generally known that PMA is more stable and efficient than RIA. Despite the significant advancement in PMA, RBDO still requires large computation time for large-scale applications. In this paper, A new reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) method is presented to achieve the more stable and efficient algorithm. The idea of the new method is to integrate a response surface method (RSM) with PMA. For the approximation of a limit state equation, the moving least squares (MLS) method is used. Through a mathematical example and ten-bar truss problem, the proposed method shows better convergence and efficiency than other approaches.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.701-721
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• 2016

Base isolation is a well-established passive strategy for seismic response control of buildings. In this paper, an efficient framework is proposed for reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) of isolated buildings subjected to uncertain earthquakes. The framework uses reduced function evaluations method, as an efficient tool for structural reliability analysis, and an efficient optimization algorithm for optimal structural design. The probability of failure is calculated considering excessive base displacement, superstructure inter-storey drifts, member stress ratios and absolute accelerations of floors of the isolated building as failure events. The behavior of rubber bearing isolators is modeled using nonlinear hysteretic model and the variability of future earthquakes is modeled by applying a probabilistic approach. The effects of pulse component of stochastic near-fault ground motions, fixity-factor of semi-rigid beam-to-column connections, values of isolator parameters, earthquake magnitude and epicentral distance on the performance and safety of semi-rigidly connected base-isolated steel framed buildings are studied. Suitable RBDO examples are solved to illustrate the results of investigations.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.93-100
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• 2012

In this paper, the deterministic optimal design for the tail plane made of composite materials is conducted under the deterministic loading condition and compared with that of the metallic materials. Next, the reliability analysis with five random variables such as loading and material properties of unidirectional prepreg is conducted to examine the probability of failure for the deterministic optimal design results. The MATLAB programing is used for reliability analysis combined with FEA S/W(COMSOL) for structural analysis. The laminated composite is assumed to the equivalent orthotropic material using classical laminated plate theory. The response surface methodology and importance sampling technique are adopted to reduce computational cost with satisfying the accuracy in reliability analysis. As a result, structural weight of composite materials is lighter than that of metals in deterministic optimal design. However, the probability of failure for the deterministic optimal design of the tail plane structures is too high to be neglected. The sensitivity of each variable is also estimated using probabilistic sensitivity analysis to figure out which variables are sensitive to failure. The computational cost is considerably reduced when response surface methodology and importance sampling technique are used. The study of the computationally inexpensive method for reliability-based design optimization will be necessary in further work.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.148-157
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• 2012

Reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) problem is usually formulated as an optimization problem to minimize an objective function subjected to probabilistic constraint functions which may include deterministic design variables as well as random variables. The challenging task is that, because the probability models of the random variables are often assumed based on limited data, there exists a possibility of selecting inappropriate distribution models and/or model parameters for the random variables, which can often lead to disastrous consequences. In order to select the most appropriate distribution model from the limited observation data as well as model parameters, this study takes into account a set of possible candidate models for the random variables. The suitability of each model is then investigated by employing performance and risk functions. In this regard, this study enables structural design optimization and fitness assessment of the distribution models of the random variables at the same time. As the first paper of a two-part series, this paper describes a new design method considering probability model uncertainties. The robust performance of the proposed method is presented in Part 2. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, an example of ten-bar truss structure is considered. The numerical results show that the proposed method can provide the optimal design variables while guaranteeing the most desirable distribution models for the random variables even in case the limited data are only available.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2010

In this paper, a reliability-based design optimization is developed for the topology design of linear structures using a performance measure approach. Spatial domain is discretized using three dimensional Reissner-Mindlin plate elements and design variable is taken as the material property of each element. A continuum based adjoint variable method is employed for the efficient computation of sensitivity with respect to the design and random variables. The performance measure approach of RBDO is employed to evaluate the probabilistic constraints. The topology optimizationproblem is formulated to have probabilistic displacement constraints. The uncertainties such as material property and external loads are considered. Numerical examples show that the developed topology optimization method could effectively yield a reliable design, comparing with the other methods such as deterministic, safety factor, and worst case approaches.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.1 s.256
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• pp.26-35
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• 2007

The vehicle of urban transit is a complex system that consists of various electric, electronic, and mechanical equipments, and the maintenance cost of this complex and large-scale system generally occupies sixty percent of the LCC (Life Cycle Cost). For reasonable establishing of maintenance strategies, safety security and cost limitation must be considered at the same time. The concept of system reliability has been introduced and optimized as the key of reasonable maintenance strategies. For optimization, three preceding studies were accomplished; standardizing a maintenance classification, constructing RBD (Reliability Block Diagram) of VVVF (Variable Voltage Variable Frequency) urban transit, and developing a web based reliability evaluation system. Historical maintenance data in terms of reliability index can be derived from the web based reliability evaluation system. In this paper, we propose applying inverse problem analysis method and hybrid neuro-genetic algorithm to system reliability optimization for using historical maintenance data in database of web based system. Feed-forward multi-layer neural networks trained by back propagation are used to find out the relationship between several component reliability (input) and system reliability (output) of structural system. The inverse problem can be formulated by using neural network. One of the neural network training algorithms, the back propagation algorithm, can attain stable and quick convergence during training process. Genetic algorithm is used to find the minimum square error.