Reliability Bounds for Structural Systems

Abstract

In chapter 7, the concept of modelling of structural systems by series and parallel systems was introduced. It was shown that in general the exact determination of the probability of failure of such systems is not possible and that a numerical calculation is often rather time-consuming. However, upper and lower bounds for the exact probability of failure can often be formulated, but the practical value of such bounds depends on how narrow they are. In this chapter two sets of bounds will be derived, namely the so-called simple bounds and Ditlevsen bounds.