Uncertainty is certain to be found in structural engineering, making it crucial to structure design. This book covers three competing philosophies behind structural safety and reliability: probabilistic analysis, fuzzy-sets based treatments, and the convex approach. Explaining the theory behind probabilistic analysis, fuzzy-sets based treatments, and the convex approach in detail, alongside their implementation, use and benefits, the book compares and contrasts these methods, enabling the reader to solve problems associated with uncertainty. These uncertainty issues can be seen in the examples of civil engineering structures and the risk of earthquakes, the impact of rough seas on a ship, and the problem of turbulence for aerospace vehicles. Building on the authors' years of experience in the field, the book is an essential guide to structural uncertainty. Topics covered in the book include properties of materials and their structural deterioration, safety factor and reliability, risk evaluation and loads and their combinations. The book will be of interest to students and professionals in the field of aerospace, civil, mechanical, marine and ocean engineering.

Uncertainty is certain to be found in structural engineering, making it crucial to structure design. This book covers three competing philosophies behind structural safety and reliability: probabilistic analysis, fuzzy set-based treatments, and the convex approach. Explaining the theory behind probabilistic analysis, fuzzy set-based treatments, and the convex approach in detail, alongside their implementation, use, and benefits, the book compares and contrasts these methods, enabling the reader to solve problems associated with uncertainty. These uncertainty issues can be seen in civil engineering structures, risk of earthquakes, impact of rough seas on ships, and turbulence affecting aerospace vehicles. Building on the authors’ many years of experience in the field, Philosophies of Structural Safety and Reliability is an essential guide to structural uncertainty. Topics covered in the book include properties of materials and their structural deterioration, safety factor and reliability, risk evaluation and loads, and their combinations. This book will be of interest to students and professionals in the fields of aerospace, civil, mechanical, marine, and ocean engineering.

Structural engineers devote all their effort to meeting society¿s expectations efficiently. Engineers and scientists work together to develop solutions to structural problems. Given that nothing is absolutely and eternally safe, the goal is to attain an acceptably small probability of failure for a structure. Reliability analysis is part of the science and practice of engineering today, not only with respect to the safety of structures, but also for questions of serviceability and other requirements of technical systems that might be impacted by some probability. The present volume takes a rather broad approach to the safety of structures and related topics. It treats the underlying concepts of risk and safety and introduces the reader to the main concepts and strategies for dealing with hazards. A chapter is devoted to the processing of data into information that is relevant for applying reliability theory. The two main chapters deal with the modelling of structures and with methods of reliability analysis. Another chapter focuses on problems related to establishing target reliabilities, assessing existing structures, and on effective strategies against human error. The Appendix supports the application of the methods proposed and refers readers to a number of related computer programs.

Have you ever wondered where the safety factors come from? Why is it that deterministic analysis has reached a very sophisticated level, but in the end empirical factors are still needed? Is there a way to select them, rather than assigning them arbitrarily as is often done? This book clearly shows that safety factors are closely related with the reliability of structures, giving yet another demonstration of Albert Einstein's maxim that "It is incomprehensible that Nature is comprehensible". The book shows that the safety factors are much more comprehensible if they are seen in a probabilistic context. Several definitions of the safety factors are given, analytical results on insightful numbers are presented, nonprobabilistic safety factors are shown, as well as their estimates derived by the inequalities of Bienayme, Markov, Chebushev and Camp-Meidell. A special chapter is devoted to important contributions by Japanese experts. This volume will help to critically re-think the issue of safety factors, which can create a false feeling of security. The deterministic paradigm can be enhanced by incorporating probabilistic concepts wisely where they are needed without treating all variables as probabilistic ones. The book shows that there is a need of their integration rather than separation. This book is intended for engineers, graduate students, lecturers and researchers.

Uncertainties about analytical models, fluctuations in loads, and variability of material properties contribute to the small but real probability of structure failures. This advanced engineering text describes methods developed to deal with stochastic aspects of structural behavior, providing a framework for evaluating, comparing, and combining stochastic effects. Starting with the general problem of consistent evaluation of the reliability of structures, the text proceeds to examination of the second-moment reliability index methods that describe failure in terms of one or more limit states. It presents first-order reliability methods for computation of failure probabilities for individual limit states and for systems; and it illustrates identification of the design parameters most affecting reliability. Additional subjects include a self-contained presentation of extreme-value theory and stochastic processes; stationary, evolutionary, and nonlinear aspects of stochastic response of structures; a stochastic approach to material fatigue damage and crack propagation; and stochastic models for several natural and manufactured loads.

The primary purpose of this book is to introduce risk and reliability concept into structural design. A structure should be designed taking into account safety, reliability, and economy. Reliability is the probability of successful function, and risk is the potential for unwanted negative consequence of an event. In structural engineering, risk analysis involves the investigation of the probability of rare events. Risk analyses are typically made on the basis of information, which is subject to uncertainty. These uncertainties may be divided into inherent or natural variability. The objective of a structural design is the assurance of successful performance over the useful life of structures or engineering systems. The primary purpose of this book is to introduce risk and reliability concept into structural design. It will cover and review reliability theory and risk analysis to solve structural engineering problems. The book was formed from the easy to the difficult and complicated concepts. Content was written from the basic concepts of uncertainties, structural safety analysis, structural reliability under repeated load, and fatigue reliability. Based on the introduction of failure modes and bounds theory, structural system reliability theory is subsequently discussed. Numerical formulation and examples are provided to enhance the study efficiency of students, engineers, and researchers. This book is suitable for adoption as a textbook or a reference book in a structural reliability analysis course. Furthermore, this book also provides a theoretical foundation for better understanding of the structural safety assessment.