• Computational Structural Engineering : An International Journal
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.81-87
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• 2001

A framework for reliability analysis of structural components and systems under conditions of statistical and model uncertainty is presented. The Bayesian parameter estimation method is used to derive the posterior distribution of model parameters reflecting epistemic uncertainties. Point, predictive and bound estimates of reliability accounting for parameter uncertainties are derived. The bounds estimates explicitly reflect the effect of epistemic uncertainties on the reliability measure. These developments are enhance-ments of second-moment uncertainty analysis methods developed by A. H-S. Ang and others three decades ago.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.74-80
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• 2013

This study describes structural reliability analysis of actively-controlled structure for which random vibration analysis is incorporated into the first-order reliability method (FORM) framework. The existing approaches perform the reliability analysis based on the RMS response, whereas the proposed study uses the peak response for the reliability analysis. Therefore, the proposed approach provides us a meaningful performance measure of the active control system, i.e., realistic failure probability. In addition, it can deal with the uncertainties in the system parameters as well as the excitations in single-loop reliability analysis, whereas the conventional random vibration analysis requires double-loop reliability analysis; one is for the system parameters and the other is for stochastic excitations. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a numerical example where the proposed approach shows fast and accurate reliability (or inversely failure probability) assessment results of the dynamical active control system against random seismic excitations in the presence of parametric uncertainties of the dynamical structural system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2019

Structural control systems have uncertainties in their structural parameters and control devices which by using reliability analysis, uncertainty can be modeled. In this paper, reliability of controlled structures equipped with semi-active Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers is investigated. For this purpose, at first, the effect of the structural parameters and damper parameters on the reliability of the seismic responses are evaluated. Then, the reliability of MR damper force is considered for expected levels of performance. For sensitivity analysis of the parameters exist in Bouc- Wen model for predicting the damper force, the importance vector is utilized. The improved first-order reliability method (FORM), is used to reliability analysis. As a case study, an 11-story shear building equipped with 3 MR dampers is selected and numerically obtained experimental data of a 1000 kN MR damper is assumed to study the reliability of the MR damper performance for expected levels. The results show that the standard deviation of random variables affects structural reliability as an uncertainty factor. Thus, the effect of uncertainty existed in the structural model parameters on the reliability of the structure is more than the uncertainty in the damper parameters. Also, the reliability analysis of the MR damper performance show that to achieve the highest levels of nominal capacity of the damper, the probability of failure is greatly increased. Furthermore, by using sensitivity analysis, the Bouc-Wen model parameters which have great importance in predicting damper force can be identified.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.8-19
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• 1997

In this study an adequate type of offshore structure at the Sakhalin region as cold region is proposed and its structural design results are presented based on the reliability analysis. Structural safety assessment has been carried out for the proposed offshore structure at the Sakhalin area as designed by the reliability method. And a rational design procedure is presented based on the reliability analysis. Followings are drawn through the present study : - Four colum TLP structure is proposed as an adequate offshore structure type at the cold region like the Sakhalin region and the reliability-based structural design results are presented. It is seen that the proposed type is a more adequate and economic than the fixed type. - Safety assessment of the proposed structure applying the extended incremental load method is performed. - Referring the allowable safety level for offshore structures it has been found present TLP structure has sufficient structural safety at the system level as well as at the component level.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.125-140
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• 2011

This study presents an innovative method to estimate the reliability sensitivity based on the low-discrepancy sampling which is a new technique for structural reliability analysis. Two advantages are contributed to the method: one is that, by developing a general importance sampling procedure for reliability sensitivity analysis, the partial derivative of the failure probability with respect to the distribution parameter can be directly obtained with typically insignificant additional computations on the basis of structural reliability analysis; and the other is that, by combining various low-discrepancy sequences with the above importance sampling procedure, the proposed method is far more efficient than that based on the classical Monte Carlo method in estimating reliability sensitivity, especially for problems of small failure probability or problems that require a large number of costly finite element analyses. Examples involving both numerical and structural problems illustrate the application and effectiveness of the method developed, which indicate that the proposed method can provide accurate and computationally efficient estimates of reliability sensitivity.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.525-534
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• 2015

A new structural dynamic fuzzy reliability analysis under stochastic loads which are applied several times is proposed in this paper. The fuzzy reliability prediction models based on time responses with and without strength degeneration are established using the stress-strength interference theory. The random loads are applied several times and fuzzy structural strength is analyzed. The efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated numerically through an example. The results have shown that the proposed method is practicable, feasible and gives a reasonably accurate prediction. The analysis shows that the probabilistic reliability is a special case of fuzzy reliability and fuzzy reliability of structural strength without degeneration is also a special case of fuzzy reliability with structural strength degeneration.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.139-142
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• 2017

For the conventional computational methods for structural reliability analysis, the common limitations are long computational time, large number of iteration and low accuracy. Thus, a new novel method for structural reliability analysis has been proposed in this paper based on response surface method incorporated with an improved genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm is first improved from the conventional genetic algorithm. Then, it is used to produce the response surface and the structural reliability is finally computed using the proposed method. The proposed method can be used to compute structural reliability easily whether the limit state function is explicit or implicit. It has been verified by two practical engineering cases that the algorithm is simple, robust, high accuracy and fast computation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.125-138
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• 2017

Reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) is a powerful tool for design optimization when considering probabilistic characteristics of design variables. However, it is often computationally intensive because of the coupling of reliability analysis and cost minimization. In this study, the concept of reliability mapping function is defined based on the relationship between the reliability index obtained by using the mean value first order reliability method and the failure probability obtained by using an improved response surface method. Double-loop involved in the classical RBDO can be converted into single-loop by using the reliability mapping function. Since the computational effort of the mean value first order reliability method is minimal, RBDO by using reliability mapping functions should be highly efficient. Engineering examples are given to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method. Numerical results indicated that the proposed method has the similar accuracy as Monte Carlo simulation, and it can obviously reduce the computational effort.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.103-110
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• 2003

A hybrid structural reliability analysis method that integrates a commercial finite element program and a reliability analysis algorithm is proposed to estimate the safety of real structures in this paper. Since finite element method (FEM) is most commonly and widely used in the analysis and design practice of real structures, it appears to be necessary to use general FEM program in the structural reliability analysis. In this case, simple conventional reliability methods cannot be used because the limit state function can only be expressed in an algorithmic form. The response surface method(RSM)-based reliability algorithm with the first-order reliability method (FORM) found to be ideal in this respect and is used in this paper. The intention of use of RSM is to develop, albeit approximately, an explicit expression of the limit state function for real structures. The applicability of the proposed method to real structures is examined with help of the example in consideration of a concrete dam. Both the strength and serviceability limit states are considered in this example.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.367-382
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• 2015

This paper aims to conduct the reliability-based assessment of the welded joint in the orthotropic steel bridge deck by use of a mesh-insensitive structural stress (MISS) method, which is an effective numerical procedure to determine the reliable stress distribution adjacent to the weld toe. Both the solid element model and the shell element model are first established to investigate the sensitivity of the element size and the element type in calculating the structural stress under different loading scenarios. In order to achieve realistic condition assessment of the welded joint, the probabilistic approach based on the structural reliability theory is adopted to derive the reliability index and the failure probability by taking into account the uncertainties inherent in the material properties and load conditions. The limit state function is formulated in terms of the structural resistance of the material and the load effect which is described by the structural stress obtained by the MISS method. The reliability index is computed by use of the first-order reliability method (FORM), and compared with a target reliability index to facilitate the safety assessment. The results achieved from this study reveal that the calculation of the structural stress using the MISS method is insensitive to the element size and the element type, and the obtained structural stress results serve as a reliable basis for structural reliability analysis.