Structural Reliability Research Group
The field of civil structures reliability has spawned many important model-based simulation techniques that are applicable to the reliability evaluation of large-scale systems in many disciplines. Civil structures are large, and cannot be assessed for reliability through full-scale testing as in the case of small mechanical and electrical devices. They are also subject to natural forces of large magnitude and large variability (earthquakes, winds, storms, floods etc.). Therefore researchers in the field of civil structures reliability have developed efficient techniques for reliability and vulnerability evaluation of such systems, by propagating statistical information about the basic input variables (loads, system properties etc.) through the system behavior computational model, to estimate the system response variability and reliability. These methods have been migrating to the reliability evaluation of complex structural systems in aerospace and mechanical engineering during the past decade, and are suitable for exploration for large-scale systems in other areas, as well as to multidisciplinary systems.
Please also visit the Multidisciplinary Reliability and Risk Engineering and Management Program website.