Showing 7 results for Reliability
A. F. Nateghi, A. Vasseghi, and V. L. Shahsavar,
Volume 25, Issue 1 (7-2006)
Abstract
Bridges are potentially one of the most seismically vulnerable structures in the highway system during earthquake
events. It is known that the seismic performance of transportation systems plays a key role in the post-earthquake emergency management. Hence, it is necessary to evaluate both physical and functional aspects of bridge structures. The physical aspects of the seismic performance of bridges are evaluated by seismic fragility functions or damage probability matrices of transportation facilities. The fragility curves represent the probability of structural damage due to various levels of ground shaking. The fragility curve describes a relationship between a ground motion and a level of damage.
In this paper, the fragility curves (F.C) are developed. The vulnerability of a railway prestreed concrete bridge is assessed using fragility curves derived from dynamic nonlinear finite element analysis. A software package is developed in MATLAB to study the results obtained. Modeling of the bridge using 3D nonlinear models and modeling of abutments, bearings, effect of falling of girder on its bearings, and nonlinear interaction of soil-structure are some of the advantages of this research compared to previous ones. Reliability curves developed in this study are unique in their own kind. The proposed method as well as the results are presented in the form of vulnerability and structural reliability relations based on two damage functions.
N. Safaeian Hamzeh Kolaei, M. Miri, M. Rashki,
Volume 35, Issue 2 (2-2017)
Abstract
Weighted Simulation-based Design Method (WSDM) is recently developed as an efficient method for Reliability-
Based Design Optimization (RBDO). Despite simplicity, this method degrades effectiveness to obtain accurate optimum design for
high dimension RBDO. Besides, its application range is restricted to RBDOs including only random design variables. In the
present study, local search strategy is employed to enhance the accuracy of conventional WSDOM, and to reduce the computational cost. Besides, a shifting strategy is proposed to increase the application range of WSDM for handling general RBDO problems. The efficiency of the proposed methods is investigated by solving some structural reliability problems.
Comparisonof the obtained results with exact solutions confirms accuracy and superiority of the proposed method for
solving various engineering problems.
M. Ettefagh, H. Mirab , R. Fathi,
Volume 36, Issue 2 (3-2018)
Abstract
One of the new methods for powering low-power electronic devices employed in the sea, is using of mechanical energies of sea waves. In this method, piezoelectric material is employed to convert the mechanical energy of sea waves into electrical energy. The advantage of this method is based on not implementing the battery charging system. Although, many studies have been done about energy harvesting from sea waves, energy harvesting with considering random JONWSAP wave theory is not fully studied up to now. The random JONSWAP wave model is a more realistic approximation of sea waves in comparison of Airy wave model. Therefore, in this paper a vertical beam with the piezoelectric patches, which is fixed to the seabed, is considered as energy harvester system. The energy harvesting system is simulated by MATLAB software, and then the vibration response of the beam and consequently the generated power is obtained considering the JONWSAP wave theory. In addition, the reliability of the system and the effect of piezoelectric patches uncertainties on the generated power are studied by statistical method. Furthermore, the failure possibility of harvester based on violation criteria is investigated.
M. Bagheri, B. Keshtegar,
Volume 37, Issue 1 (9-2018)
Abstract
In this paper, a new method is proposed for fuzzy structural reliability analysis; it considers epistemic uncertainty arising from the statistical ambiguity of random variables. The proposed method, namely, fuzzy dynamic-directional stability transformation method, includes two iterative loops. An internal algorithm performs the reliability analysis using the dynamic-directional stability transformation method and an external algorithm performs the fuzzy analysis by applying the alpha-cut level optimization method based on the genetic algorithm. Implementation of the proposed method, which solves some nonlinear performance functions, indicates the efficiency and robustness of the dynamic-directional stability transformation method, as compared to other first order reliability methods.
S. Saravani, B. Keshtegar,
Volume 37, Issue 2 (3-2019)
Abstract
The computational burdens and more accurate approximations for the estimation of the failure probability are the main concerns in the structural reliability analyses. The Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method can simply provide an accurate estimation for the failure probability, but it is a time-consuming method for complex reliability engineering problems with a low failure probability and may efficiently approximate the failure probability. In this paper, the efficiency of MCS for the computations of the performance function is improved using a random-weighted method known as the random-weighted MCS (RWMC) method. By using the weighted exponential function, the weights of random data points generated by MCS are adjusted by selecting the random point in the design space. The convergence performances including the computational burdens for evaluating the limit sate function and the accuracy of failure probabilities of RWMC are compared with MCS by using several nonlinear and complex mathematical and structural problems with normal and no-normal random variables. The results indicate that the proposed RWMC method can estimate the accurate results with the less computational burdens, about 100 to 1000 times faster than MCS
N. Cheraghi, M. Miri, M. Rashki,
Volume 39, Issue 1 (8-2020)
Abstract
This paper presents a probabilistic assessment on the free vibration analysis of functionally graded material plates, including layers with magneto-electro-elastic properties, using the 3D solution and surrogate models. The plate is located on an elastic foundation and the intra-layer slipping effect is also considered in the analysis by employing the generalized intra-layer spring model. Due to the high computational cost of the 3D solution in calculating the free vibration frequency of the plate, surrogate models are used. The meta models including kriging method, radial fundamental function method and polynomial response surface method are used to construct the surrogate model. For surrogate models training, the results of the three-dimensional solving method are used. The elastic foundation hardness, the intra-layer slipping effect, the material properties index, and the layer densities are considered as the variables with uncertainty. The three-dimensional solution method is validated through a comparison with other available reference. The results obtained through the surrogate models have been compared to those of the 3D solution formulation, showing a good agreement. The effects of some parameters including the elastic foundation hardness, the intra-layer slipping effect, the density of each layer, and the material properties index on the fundamental frequency of functionally graded material plates are investigated. By using three-dimensional solution method and Kriging Surrogate Model, it is shown that the shear and transverse components of elastic foundation hardness and the density of each layer have the greatest effect on the fundamental frequency of the functionally graded material plates.
M. Abouei Ardakan, S. Talkhabi,
Volume 39, Issue 2 (2-2021)
Abstract
One of the common approaches for improving the reliability of a specific system is to use parallel redundant components in subsystems. This approach, which is known as the redundancy allocation problem (RAP), includes the simultaneous selection of the component type and its level for each subsystem in order to maximize the system reliability.Traditionally, there are two redundancy strategies, namely active and standby, for the redundant components. Recently, a new powerful strategy called mixed strategy has been developed. It has been proved that the mixed strategy has a better performance when compared to both previous strategies. The main issue in utilizing the mixed strategy is its complicated formulation and sophisticated calculations, leading to a time-consuming procedure for solving the problems. Hence, in this paper, a new formulation based on the recursive approach is introduced to ease the calculation of the mixed strategy. In the new formulation, the complex double integral calculations are removed and the calculation times is reduced. The proposed recursive formulation provides a general statement for the mixed strategy formula which is not changed by altering the number of components in each subsystem. This flexibility and stability in the formula can be very important, especially for large scale cases. In order to evaluate the new approach and to compare its performances with the previous formulation, a benchmark problem with 14 subsystems is considered and the results of the two formulation are compared with each other.
