Structural Reliability And Time Dependent Reliability

This book provides structural reliability and design students with fundamental knowledge in structural reliability, as well as an overview of the latest developments in the field of reliability engineering. It addresses the mathematical formulation of analytical tools for structural reliability assessment. This book offers an accessible introduction to structural reliability assessment and a solid foundation for problem-solving. It introduces the topic and background, before dealing with probability models for random variables. It then explores simulation techniques for single random variables, random vectors consisting of different variables, and stochastic processes. The book addresses analytical approaches for structural reliability assessment, including the reliability models for a single structure and those for multiple structures, as well as discussing the approaches for structural time-dependent reliability assessment in the presence of discrete and continuous load processes. This book delivers a timely and pedagogical textbook, including over 170 worked-through examples, detailed solutions, and analytical tools, making it of interest to a wide range of graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the field of reliability engineering.

Structural reliability theory is concerned with the rational treatment of uncertainties in struc tural engineering and with the methods for assessing the safety and serviceability of civil en gineering and other structures. It is a subject which has grown rapidly during the last decade and has evolved from being a topic for academic research to a set of well-developed or develop ing methodologies with a wide range of practical applications. Uncertainties exist in most areas of civil and structural engineeri'1.g and rational design decisions cannot be made without modelling them and taking them into account. Many structural en gineers are shielded from having to think about such problems, at least when designing simple structures, because of the prescriptive and essentially deterministic nature of most codes of practice. This is an undesirable situation. Most loads and other structural design parameters are rarely known with certainty and should be regarded as random variables or stochastic processes, even if in design calculations they are eventually treated as deterministic. Some problems such as the analysis of load combinations cannot even be formulated without recourse to probabilistic reasoning.

Structural Reliability Analysis and Prediction, Third Edition is a textbook which addresses the important issue of predicting the safety of structures at the design stage and also the safety of existing, perhaps deteriorating structures. Attention is focused on the development and definition of limit states such as serviceability and ultimate strength, the definition of failure and the various models which might be used to describe strength and loading. This book emphasises concepts and applications, built up from basic principles and avoids undue mathematical rigour. It presents an accessible and unified account of the theory and techniques for the analysis of the reliability of engineering structures using probability theory. This new edition has been updated to cover new developments and applications and a new chapter is included which covers structural optimization in the context of reliability analysis. New examples and end of chapter problems are also now included.

This book provides structural reliability and design students with fundamental knowledge in structural reliability, as well as an overview of the latest developments in the field of reliability engineering. It addresses the mathematical formulation of analytical tools for structural reliability assessment. This book offers an accessible introduction to structural reliability assessment and a solid foundation for problem-solving. It introduces the topic and background, before dealing with probability models for random variables. It then explores simulation techniques for single random variables, random vectors consisting of different variables, and stochastic processes. The book addresses analytical approaches for structural reliability assessment, including the reliability models for a single structure and those for multiple structures, as well as discussing the approaches for structural time-dependent reliability assessment in the presence of discrete and continuous load processes. This book delivers a timely and pedagogical textbook, including over 170 worked-through examples, detailed solutions, and analytical tools, making it of interest to a wide range of graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the field of reliability engineering.

A quarter of the century has elapsed since I gave my first course in structural reliability to graduate students at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Since that time on I have given many courses and seminars to students, researchers, designers, and site engineers interested in reliability. I also participated in and was responsible for numerous projects where reliability solutions were required. During that period, the scope of structural reliability gradually enlarged to become a substantial part of the general reliability theory. First, it is apparent that bearing structures should not be isolated objectives of interest, and, consequently, that constntCted facilities should be studied. Second, a new engineering branch has emerged -reliability engineering. These two facts have highlighted new aspects and asked for new approaches to the theory and applications. I always state in my lectures that the reliability theory is nothing more than mathematized engineering judgment. In fact, thanks mainly to probability and statistics, and also to computers, the empirical knowledge gained by Humankind's construction experience could have been transposed into a pattern of logic thinking, able to produce conclusions and to forecast the behavior of engineering entities. This manner of thinking has developed into an intricate network linked by certain rules, which, in a way, can be considered a type of reliability grammar. We can discern many grammatical concepts in the general structure of the reliability theory.

STRUCTURAL RELIABILITY Discover a new and innovative approach to structural reliability from two authoritative and accomplished authors The subject of structural reliability, which deals with the problems of evaluating the safety and risk posed by a wide variety of structures, has grown rapidly over the last four decades. And while the First-Order Reliability Method is principally used by most textbooks on this subject, other approaches have identified some of the limitations of that method. In Structural Reliability: Approaches from Perspectives of Statistical Moments, accomplished engineers and authors Yan-Gang Zhao and Dr. Zhao-Hui Lu, deliver a concise and insightful exploration of an alternative and innovative approach to structural reliability. Called the Methods of Moment, the authors’ approach is based on the information of statistical moments of basic random variables and the performance function. The Methods of Moment approach facilitates ­structural reliability analysis and reliability-based design and can be extended to other engineering disciplines, yielding further insights into challenging problems involving ­randomness. Readers will also benefit from the inclusion of: A thorough introduction to the measures of structural safety, including uncertainties in structural design, deterministic measures of safety, and probabilistic measures of safety An exploration of the fundamentals of structural reliability theory, including the performance function and failure probability A practical discussion of moment evaluation for performance functions, including moment computation for both explicit and implicit performance functions A concise treatment of direct methods of moment, including the third- and fourth-moment reliability methods Perfect for professors, researchers, and graduate students in civil engineering, Structural Reliability: Approaches from Perspectives of Statistical Moments will also earn a place in the libraries of professionals and students working or studying in mechanical engineering, aerospace and aeronautics engineering, marine and offshore engineering, ship engineering, and applied mechanics.

This book provides structural reliability and design students with fundamental knowledge in structural reliability, as well as an overview of the latest developments in the field of reliability engineering. It addresses the mathematical formulation of analytical tools for structural reliability assessment. This book offers an accessible introduction to structural reliability assessment and a solid foundation for problem-solving. It introduces the topic and background, before dealing with probability models for random variables. It then explores simulation techniques for single random variables, random vectors consisting of different variables, and stochastic processes. The book addresses analytical approaches for structural reliability assessment, including the reliability models for a single structure and those for multiple structures, as well as discussing the approaches for structural time-dependent reliability assessment in the presence of discrete and continuous load processes. This book delivers a timely and pedagogical textbook, including over 170 worked-through examples, detailed solutions, and analytical tools, making it of interest to a wide range of graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the field of reliability engineering.