Structural system reliability assessment using generalized factorized dimensional reduction method and iterative maximum entropy method

Abstract

The system reliability analysis of complex engineering structures remains a challenge in the field of reliability. In this work, a high-order moment method using generalized factorized dimensional reduction method (GF-DRM) and iterative maximum entropy method (IMEM) is proposed for structural system reliability assessment. Firstly, the performance functions are described uniformly by equivalent description methods for various system reliability problems. Secondly, a novel point estimation method (PEM) based on GF-DRM is proposed for the high-order moments estimation of the equivalent performance function. Thirdly, the system failure probability of the structures is accurately determined by using the IMEM, which can automatically determine the order of moments. Finally, four examples, including numerical and engineering cases, are investigated to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method, in which results obtained from the proposed method are compared with some other existing moment methods and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method. The results of the examples show the proposed method has fairly high accuracy and efficiency for structural high-order moments estimation and system reliability analysis.

Keywords:

• Equivalent description method
• factorized dimensional reduction method
• high-order moments
• iterative maximum entropy method
• system reliability

Acknowledgments

The research presented in this paper was conducted with the support of the National Key Research and Development Project of China (Grant No. 2017YFC070 3901, Grant No. 2019YFD1101003) and NSFC-JSPS China-Japan Scientific Cooperation Project (NSFC Grant No. 51611140123). These supports are gratefully acknowledged. Additionally, the authors would also like to express acknowledgments to the associate editor and the four anonymous reviewers for their crucial and insightful suggestions and comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.