Assembly-oriented reliability analysis method for the top-connection structure of a nuclear fuel assembly

The nuclear fuel assembly is the core component of a nuclear reactor.In a pressurized water reactor fuel assembly,the top-connection structure connects the top nozzle to the guide thimble.Its performance reliability is essential for the stability of the nuclear fuel assembly.In this study,an assembly-oriented reliability analysis method for top-connection structures is presented by establishing an assembly-oriented top-connection structure parameter modeling method and a nonlinear contact gap and penetration correction method.A reliability model of the top-connection assembly structure,including multiple stochastic design variables,was constructed,and the overall reliability of the top-connection assembly structure was obtained via a Kriging model and Monte Carlo simulation.The acquired experimental data were consistent with real-world failure conditions,which verified the practicability and feasibility of the reliability analysis method proposed in this study.

System Reliability Analysis for Truss Structures Based on Automatic Updated Model

Multiple failure modes tend to be identified in the reliability analysis of a redundant truss structure.This identification process involves updating the model for identifying the next potential failure members.Herein we intend to update the finite element model automatically in the identification process of failure modes and further perform the system reliability analysis efficiently.This study presents a framework that is implemented through the joint simulation of MATLAB and APDL and consists of three parts:reliability index of a single member,identification of dominant failure modes,and system-level reliability analysis for system reliability analysis of truss structures.Firstly,RSM(response surface method)combines with a constrained optimization model to calculate the reliability indices ofmembers.Then theβ-unzipping method is adopted to identify the dominant failuremodes,and the system function in MATLAB,as well as the EKILL command in APDL,is used to facilitate the automatic update of the finite element model and realize load-redistribution.Besides,the differential equivalence recursion algorithmis performed to approximate the reliability indices of failuremodes efficiently and accurately.Eventually,the PNET(probabilistic network evaluation technique)is used to calculate the joint failure probability as well as the system reliability index.Two illustrative examples demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed system reliability analysis framework through comparison with corresponding references.

DYNAMIC RESPONSE OPTIMIZATION DESIGN FOR ENGINEERING STRUCTURES BASED ON RELIABILITY

In many practical structures, physical parameters of material and applied loads have random property.To optimize this kind of structures,an optimum mathematical model was built.This model has reliability constraints on dynamic stress and displacement and upper & lower limits of the design variables. The numerical characteristic of dynamic response and sensitivity of dynamic response based on probability of structure were deduced respectively. By equivalent disposing, the reliability constraints were changed into conventional forms. The SUMT method was used in the optimization process.Two examples illustrate the correctness and practicability of the optimum model and solving approach.

Corrosion Fatigue Life Prediction of Aircraft Structure Based on Fuzzy Reliability Approach

Material performance of LY12CZ aluminum is greatly degraded because of corrosion and corrosion fatigue, which severely affect the integrity and safety of aircraft structure, especially those of lbe navy aircraft structure. The corrosion and corrosion fatigue failure process of aircraft structure are directly concerned with many factors, such as load, material characteristics, corrosive environment and so on. The damage mechanism is very complicated, and there are both randomness and fuzziness in the failure process. With consideration of the limitation of those conventional probabilistic approaches for prediction of corrosion fatigue life of aircraft structure at present, and based on the operational load spectrum obtained through investigating service status of the aircraft in naval aviation force, a fuzzy reliability approach is proposed, which is more reasonable and closer to the fact. The effects of the pit aspect ratio, the crack aspect ratio and all fuzzy factors on corrosion fatigue life of aircraft structure are discussed. The results demonstrate that the approach can be applied to predict the corrosion fatigue life of aircraft structure.

Non-probabilistic reliability method and reliability-based optimal LQR design for vibration control of structures with uncertain-but-bounded parameters

Uncertainty is inherent and unavoidable in almost all engineering systems. It is of essential significance to deal with uncertainties by means of reliability approach and to achieve a reasonable balance between reliability against uncertainties and system performance in the control design of uncertain systems. Nevertheless, reliability methods which can be used directly for analysis and synthesis of active control of structures in the presence of uncertainties remain to be developed, especially in non-probabilistic uncertainty situations. In the present paper, the issue of vibration con- trol of uncertain structures using linear quadratic regulator （LQR） approach is studied from the viewpoint of reliabil- ity. An efficient non-probabilistic robust reliability method for LQR-based static output feedback robust control of un- certain structures is presented by treating bounded uncertain parameters as interval variables. The optimal vibration con- troller design for uncertain structures is carried out by solv- ing a robust reliability-based optimization problem with the objective to minimize the quadratic performance index. The controller obtained may possess optimum performance un- der the condition that the controlled structure is robustly re- liable with respect to admissible uncertainties. The proposed method provides an essential basis for achieving a balance between robustness and performance in controller design ot uncertain structures. The presented formulations are in the framework of linear matrix inequality and can be carried out conveniently. Two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the present method.

Methodology to Estimate Remaining Service Life of Steel Structure by Possibilistic Reliability Theory

Steel structure system of crane deteriorates over time due to environmental effects, material fatigue, and overloading. System structural reliability and remaining service life assessment methods are developed during the few decades. But until now estimating remaining service life methods of crane steel system by reliability theory begin to develop. Safety assessment of existing steel structure system requires the development of a methodology that allows for an accurate evaluation of reliability and prediction of the remaining life. Steel structures are the supporting elements in the special equipment such as hoisting machinery. Structure reliability and remaining service life safe assessment are important for steel structures. For finding the reason which caused the failure modes （such as fatigue strength failure, stiffness failure and stability failure）, incremental loading method based on possibilistic reliability is applied into dynamic structure failure path research. Through reliability analyzing and calculating for crane, it is demonstrated that fatigue damage is the most common failure mode. Fuzzy fatigue damage accumulation theory is used for basis theory and Paris-Eadogan equations are used for mathematical modeling. All fatigue parameter values of the welding box girder of bridge cranes are determined and fatigue remaining life formulas are deduced. After field test and collecting working parameters of numerous cranes, typical fatigue load spectrum was compiled for the dangerous point of box girders used in the area. Fatigue remaining life is assessed for different types and lifting capacities. Safety for steel structure system of bridge crane is assessed by two quantitative indexs： reliability and remaining life. Therefore, the evaluation means is more comprehensive and reasonable. The example shows that the two quantitative indexs are mutually correlated. Through analyzing the 120 t-22.5 m bridge crane of a certain enterprise, a new methodology to estimate remaining service life of steel structure by possibilistic reliability theory is introduced for safety evaluation of structure system.

TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF TRUSS STRUCTURES WITH SYSTEMATIC RELIABILITY CONSTRAINTS UNDER MULTIPLE LOADING CASES

In this paper, a mathematical model for topology optimization oftruss structures with constraints of displacement and systemreliability under multiple loading cases is constructed. In order toavoid the difficulty of computing the structure's system reliability,a solving approach is presented in which the failure probability ofsystem is divided into the sum of a all bars' failures probability bymeans of reliability distribution. In addition, by drawing into thereliability safety factor and the fundamen- tal relationship instructural mechanics, all probability constraints of displacement andstress are equiv- alently displayed as conventional form and linearfunction of the design variables.

Fatigue reliability analysis of fixed offshore structures:A first passage problem approach

This paper describes a methodology for computation of reliability of members of fixed offshore platform structures, with respect to fatigue. Failure criteria were formulated using fracture mechanics principle. The problem is coined as a “first passage problem”. The method was illustrated through application to a typical plane frame structure. The fatigue reliability degradation curve established can be used for planning in-service inspection of offshore platforms. A very limited parametric study was carried out to obtain insight into the effect of important variables on the fatigue reliability.

Cronbach's a reliability, concurrent validity, and factorial structure of the Death Depression Scale in an Iranian hospital staff sample

Objective: Death depression is an important component in the process of death and dying. Death depression is the second element of death. Depression is one of the important features in death distress. The aim of this study was to explore the performance of the Farsi version of the Death Depression Scale with an Iranian convenience sample of nurses (n =106).Methods: Nurses were selected using a convenience sampling method, and completed the Death Depression Scale (DDS), Death Concern Scale (DCS), Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale (CLFDS), Reasons for Death Fear Scale (RDFS), Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), and Death Obsession Scale (DOS). Results: The results of exploratory factor analysis on DDS identified 4 factors (56.16%of variance). Factor 1 labeled"Death sadness", Factor 2 labeled"Death finality/end and Death dread/fear", Factor 3 labeled"Death despair and Death depression", and Factor 4 labeled"Death loneliness". Cronbach's a coefficient was 0.84, Spearman-Brown coefficient 0.85, and Guttman Split-Half coefficient 0.81 The DDS correlated 0.40 with the DCS, 0.39 with the CLFDS, 0.50 with the DAS, 0.35 with the RDFS, and 0.44 with the DOS, indicating good construct and criterion-related validity. Concurrent validity for the DDS with the other scales were significant. Conclusions: The DDS has good validity and reliability, and it can use in clinical and research settings.

OPTIMUM DESIGN BASED ON RELIABILITY IN STOCHASTIC STRUCTURE SYSTEMS

The optimum design method based on the reliability is presented to the stochastic structure systems （i. e., the sectional area, length, elastic module and strength of the structural member are random variables ） under the random loads. The sensitivity expression of system reliability index and the safety margins were presented in the stochastic structure systems. The optimum vector method was given. First, the expressions of the reliability index of the safety margins with the improved first-order second-moment and the stochastic finite element method were deduced, and then the expressions of the systemic failure probability by probabilistic network evaluation technique（PNET） method were obtained. After derivation calculus ,the expressions of the sensitivity analysis for the system reliability were obtained. Moreover, the optimum design with the optimum vector algorithm was undertaken. In the optimum iterative procedure, the gradient step and the optimum vector step were adopted to calculate. At the last, a numerical example was provided to illustrate that the method is efficient in the calculation, stably converges and fits the application in engineering.

Structural Interval Reliability Algorithm Based on Bernstein Polynomials and Evidence Theory

Structural reliability is an important method to measure the safety performance of structures under the influence of uncertain factors.Traditional structural reliability analysis methods often convert the limit state function to the polynomial form to measure whether the structure is invalid.The uncertain parameters mainly exist in the form of intervals.This method requires a lot of calculation and is often difficult to achieve efficiently.In order to solve this problem,this paper proposes an interval variable multivariate polynomial algorithm based on Bernstein polynomials and evidence theory to solve the structural reliability problem with cognitive uncertainty.Based on the non-probabilistic reliability index method,the extreme value of the limit state function is obtained using the properties of Bernstein polynomials,thus avoiding the need for a lot of sampling to solve the reliability analysis problem.The method is applied to numerical examples and engineering applications such as experiments,and the results show that the method has higher computational efficiency and accuracy than the traditional linear approximation method,especially for some reliability problems with higher nonlinearity.Moreover,this method can effectively improve the reliability of results and reduce the cost of calculation in practical engineering problems.

Reliability analysis on bolt support structure of coal roadway under the influence of mining

Based on the features of the serious deformation of coal roadway,many random variables of the mechanics of the surrounding rocks and the influence of mining, the reliability analysis model of the support structure of coal roadway under the influence of mining is established,and the calculating formulas of reliability of the support structure is obtained with the engineering structure reliability theory. And the reliability is calculated based on the method of Monte Carlo to the coal roadway which is exampled on the influence of mining or not. The relationship between support parameters and reliability, the mining influence coefficients and reliability is established, which provides theory foundations for the design of the coal roadway bolt support.

Performance-based global reliability assessment of a high-rise frame-core tube structure subjected to multi-dimensional stochastic earthquakes

When evaluating the seismic safety and reliability of complex engineering structures,it is a critical problem to reasonably consider the randomness and multi-dimensional nature of ground motions.To this end,a proposed modeling strategy of multi-dimensional stochastic earthquakes is addressed in this study.This improved seismic model has several merits that enable it to better provide seismic analyses of structures.Specifically,at first,the ground motion model is compatible with the design response spectrum.Secondly,the evolutionary power spectrum involved in the model and the design response spectrum are constructed accordingly with sufficient consideration of the correlation between different seismic components.Thirdly,the random function-based dimension-reduction representation is applied,by which seismic modeling is established,with three elementary random variables.Numerical simulations of multi-dimensional stochastic ground motions in a specific design scenario indicate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling strategy.Moreover,the multi-dimensional seismic response and the global reliability of a high-rise frame-core tube structure is discussed in detail to further illustrate the engineering applicability of the proposed method.The analytical investigations demonstrate that the suggested stochastic model of multi-dimensional ground motion is available for accurate seismic response analysis and dynamic reliability assessment of complex engineering structures for performance-based seismic resistance design.

Design for a Crane Metallic Structure Based on Imperialist Competitive Algorithm and Inverse Reliability Strategy

Uncertainties in parameters such as materials, loading, and geometry are inevitable in designing metallic structures for cranes. When considering these uncertainty factors, reliability-based design optimization （RBDO） offers a more reasonable design approach. However, existing RBDO methods for crane metallic structures are prone to low convergence speed and high computational cost. A unilevel RBDO method, combining a discrete imperialist competitive algorithm with an inverse reliabil- ity strategy based on the performance measure approach, is developed. Application of the imperialist competitive algorithm at the optimization level significantly improves the convergence speed of this RBDO method. At the reli- ability analysis level, the inverse reliability strategy is used to determine the feasibility of each probabilistic constraint at each design point by calculating its a-percentile per- formance, thereby avoiding convergence failure, calcula- tion error, and disproportionate computational effort encountered using conventional moment and simulation methods. Application of the RBDO method to an actual crane structure shows that the developed RBDO realizes a design with the best tradeoff between economy and safety together with about one-third of the convergence speed and the computational cost of the existing method. This paper provides a scientific and effective design approach for the design of metallic structures of cranes.

Fatigue Reliability of Deck Structures Subjected to Correlated Crack Growth

The objective of this work is to analyse fatigue reliability of deck structures subjected to correlated crack growth.The stress intensity factors of the correlated cracks are obtained by finite element analysis and based on which the geometry correction functions are derived.The Monte Carlo simulations are applied to predict the statistical descriptors of correlated cracks based on the Paris-Erdogan equation.A probabilistic model of crack growth as a function of time is used to analyse the fatigue reliability of deck structures accounting for the crack propagation correlation.A deck structure is modelled as a series system of stiffened panels,where a stiffened panel is regarded as a parallel system composed of plates and are longitudinal.It has been proven that the method developed here can be conveniently applied to perform the fatigue reliability assessment of structures subjected to correlated crack growth.

FUZZY RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURE

Prediction of structural performance is complicated by many uncertainties of random or fuzzy character. This paper presented an initial investigation on reliability theory of structure involved with fuzziness. The membership function of structural safety was established. The calculation methods of fuzzy reliability of structure were also presented, and as an example, the fuzzy reliability of simply supported beam was calculated.

RELIABILITY OF ELASTO-PLASTIC STRUCTURE USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

A solution of probabilistic FEM for elastic-plastic materials is presented based on the incremental theory of plasticity and a modified initial stress method. The formulations are deduced through a direct differentiation scheme. Partial differentiation of displacement, stress and the performance function can be iteratively performed with the computation of the mean values of displacement and stress. The presented method enjoys the efficiency of both the perturbation method and the finite difference method, but avoids the approximation during the partial differentiation calculation. In order to improve the efficiency, the adjoint vector method is introduced to calculate the differentiation of stress and displacement with respect to random variables. In addition, a time-saving computational method for reliability index of elastic-plastic materials is suggested based upon the advanced First Order Second Moment (FOSM) and by the usage of Taylor expansion for displacement. The suggested method is also applicable to 3-D cases.

The reliability analysis of welded structure with embedded cracks by using three dimensional stochastic FEM

In this paper, the reliability of welded structure with an embedded elliptical crack was calculated by using three dimensional stochastic finite element method. This method has overcome the shortcomings of conservative results in safety assessment with deterministic fracture mechanics method. The calculation of reliability was based on three dimensional perturbation stochastic finite element program which was developed by ourselves. The effects of variables (such as fracture toughness K IC , load P, the ratio of minor axis to major axis a/c) on the structure reliability were also discussed. The calculation results indicate that among the three variables (K IC ,P, a/c) , the fracture toughness K IC has the greatest effect on the structure reliability. The next is external load P. The ratio of the a/c has lower effect on structure reliability than both K IC and P . The method has put forward a new way for safety assessment of welded structure with embedded elliptical cracks.

Time-Dependent Reliability Analysis of Offshore Structures

During the life of an offshore structure, its structural strength declines due to various kinds of damages related to the time factor. In this paper, four major kinds of damages, including damages caused by fatigue, dent, corrosion and marine life, are discussed. Based on these analyses, formulas for the evaluation of the damaged structure reliability are derived. Furthermore the computer program ISM for the analysis of structural reliability is developed by the use of Advanced First Order Second Moment method and Monte-Carlo Importance Sampling method. The reliability of a turbular joint and a beam are studied as numerical examples. The results show that the theory and the analysis method given in this paper are reasonable and effective.

STOCHASTIC BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD FOR RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF PLATE AND BEAMS COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

In this paper, the reliability of orthotropic plate and beams composite structures, which is under the actions of the stochastic loading and stochastic boundary conditions, have been analyzed by stochastic boundary element method. First, the boundary integral equation of orthotropic plate and beams composite structures is given in this paper, and then based on the stochastic boundary element method, the method for reliability analysis of stochastic structures is establishes and formulas for computation of reliability index of orthotropic plate and beams composite structures are obtained. The computed examples show the efficient of the method used in this paper.