This paper presents recent developments in response sensitivity, probabilistic response and reliability analyses of structural and geotechnical systems. These developments are integrated within general-purpose software frameworks for non-linear finite element response analysis and provide the structural engineers with analytical tools to propagate uncertainties through advanced large-scale non-...

A new method is proposed for shape sensitivity analysis of a crack in a homogeneous, isotropic, and nonlinearly elastic body subject to mode I loading conditions. The method involves the material derivative concept of continuum mechanics, domain integral representation of the J-integral, and direct differentiation. Unlike virtual crack extension techniques, no mesh perturbation is required in t...

OBJECTIVES There remains a lack of data on the reliability of methods to estimate tibial coverage achieved during total knee replacement. In order to address this gap, the intra- and interobserver reliability of a three-dimensional (3D) digital templating method was assessed with one symmetric and one asymmetric prosthesis design. METHODS A total of 120 template procedures were performed acco...

Properties of software failure times modelled as realizations of order statistics generated by independent but non-identically distributed exponential random variables are developed. Edgeworth and saddle point approximations to central order statistic densities so generated are developed using an exact integral representation of these densities. A comparison of Edgeworth and saddle point approx...

In complex scale-free networks, ranking the individual nodes based upon their importance has useful applications, such as the identification of hubs for epidemic control, or bottlenecks for controlling traffic congestion. However, in most real situations, only limited sub-structures of entire networks are available, and therefore the reliability of the order relationships in sampled networks re...

The distributed system is a paradigm in which the components can communicate by means of the interface connected between them. The interaction between the components takes place in order to achieve a common goal. The reliability metrics is used to evaluate the performance of the components which is connected by the distributed systems. The Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), Mean Time to Repair (...

Currently, the requirements of Business sector promote more and more complex Information Systems. Reliability is one of the quality characteristics widely expected by users and developers. This characteristic is architectural by nature since it can be directly promoted by software architecture. This relation determines the importance of designing architectures that guarantee reliable systems. T...

In recent years, geotechnical engineers have paid much attention on reliability-based design. The probability density functions (PDFs) of the uncertain soil parameters are required for the reliability-based design. Once these PDFs are obtained, reliability analysis can be conducted, and reliability-based design can be achieved. Among the soil parameters, soil strengths play important roles in g...

ABSRACT: A practical procedure for reliability analysis involving correlated nonnormals was described in Low & Tang (1997), using object-oriented constrained optimization in the ubiquitous spreadsheet platform. Numerical derivatives and iterative search for the design point were automatic. The objective of this paper is to further illustrate the 1997 procedure for two geotechnical problems with...

fuzzy set based methods have been proved to be effective in handling many types of uncertainties in different fields, including reliability engineering. this paper presents a new approach on fuzzy reliability, based on the use of beta type distribution as membership function. considering experts' ideas and by asking operators linguistic variables, a rule base is designed to determine the level ...