Abstract Structural reliability analysis is concerned with estimation of the probability a critical event taking place, described by $$P(g(\mathbf{X} ) \le 0)$$ P ( g X ) ≤ 0 for some n...

It is first pointed out that most often used reliability coefficient α and one-factor model based reliability ρ are seriously biased when unique factors are covariated. In the case, the α is no longer a lower bound of the true reliability. Use of Bollen’s formula (Bollen 1980) on reliability is highly recommended. A web-based program termed “STERA” is developed which can make stepwise reliabili...

A very efficient methodology to carry out reliability-based optimization of linear systems with random structural parameters and random excitation is presented. The reliabilitybased optimization problem is formulated as the minimization of an objective function for a specified reliability. The probability that design conditions are satisfied within a given time interval is used as a measure of ...