Xiukai Yuan^1,2,*, Jian Gu¹, Shaolong Liu¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.126, No.1, pp. 331-357, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2021.010482

Abstract In structural reliability analysis, simulation methods are widely used. The statistical characteristics of failure probability estimate of these methods have been well investigated. In this study, the sensitivities of the failure probability estimate and its statistical characteristics with regard to sample, called ‘contribution indexes’, are proposed to measure the contribution of sample. The contribution indexes in four widely simulation methods, i.e., Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), importance sampling (IS), line sampling (LS) and subset simulation (SS) are derived and analyzed. The proposed contribution indexes of sample can provide valuable information understanding the methods deeply, and enlighten potential improvement of methods. It… More >

Mena E. Tawfik^{1, 2}, Peter L. Bishay^{3, *}, Edward A. Sadek¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.115, No.1, pp. 105-129, 2018, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2018.115.105

Abstract Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS), commonly used for reliability analysis, require a large amount of data points to obtain acceptable accuracy, even if the Subset Simulation with Importance Sampling (SS/IS) methods are used. The Second Order Reliability Method (SORM) has proved to be an excellent rapid tool in the stochastic analysis of laminated composite structures, when compared to the slower MCS techniques. However, SORM requires differentiating the performance function with respect to each of the random variables involved in the simulation. The most suitable approach to do this is to use a symbolic solver, which renders the simulations very slow, although… More >