Structural Reliability Assessment

This chapter discusses the method and application in practical engineering of structural reliability assessment. Reliability theory is the basis for measuring structural safety level under a probability-based framework. This chapter starts from the definition of structural reliability and reliability index, followed by the computation methods of reliability index, including first-order second-moment method, first-order reliability method, simulation-based method and moment-based method. Subsequently, some simple models for system reliability are presented, namely series system, parallel system and k-out-of-n system. The probability-based modelling of structural resistance and external loads are also addressed, followed by the probability-based limit state design approaches. The reliability theory can be further used to optimize structural design and conduct life-cycle cost analysis. Finally, the evaluation of structural reliability in the presence of imprecisely-informed random variables is considered.