APPLICATION OF TAYLOR’S EXPANSION TO ASSESS RELIABILITY INDEX OF TRUSS STRUCTURES

Abstract

In reliability analysis, calculations frequently require insight into probabilistic knowledge. Requirements of probabilistic methods cause difficulty for engineers in design practice. Alternatively, Monte Carlo simulation requires repeating calculations to achieve accurate solutions. Fortunately, a method of Mean Value First-Order Second-Moment (MVFOSM) that uses Taylor’s series can overcome the two abovementioned drawbacks. Namely, MVFOSM does not require significant knowledge about probabilistic analysis or expensive computing time and effort. This study investigates the application of the method of MVFOSM to reliability analysis. The method is applied to two planar truss structures. The results disclose that the MVFOSM method can derive good approximation solutions. The largest error is lower than 5% for the more complex truss, including ten random variables. Particularly, the methods require a minor computing effort compared to the Monte Carlo simulation.