Probabilistic Structural Mechanics: Advances in Structural Reliability Methods IUTAM Symposium, San Antonio, Texas, USA June 7–10,1993

This symposium is the seventh of a series of IUTAM sponsored symposia which focus on probabilistic methods in mechanics. It is the sequel to the series of meetings in Coventry, UK (1972), Southhampton, UK (1976), Frankfurt/Oder, Germany (1982), Stockholm, Sweden (1984), Innsbruck/Igls, Austria (1987), and Turin, Italy (1991). The symposium focused on advances in the area of probabilistic mechanics with direct application to structural reliability issues. The contributed papers address collectively the four components of a structural reliability problem. They are: characterization of stochastic loads, description of material properties in terms of fatigue and fracture, response determination, and quantitative assessment of the reliability of the structural system. Four Keynote Lectures by V. Bolotin (Russia), o. Ditlevsen (Denmark), R. Heller (USA), and F. Ziegler (Austria) were delivered; the remaining contributed papers were organized in ten technical sessIons. A reception was hosted by Dr. Y. Wu the first day of the symposium; the second day of the symposium a banquet was hosted by Dr. P. Spanos, with Dr. N. Abramson serving as the banquet speaker. Closing remarks were provided by the IUTAM Secretary General, Dr. F. Ziegler.

Deriving Probability Models for Stress Analysis.- Fatigue Life Prediction of Structures.- Stochastic Boundary Element Methods: Computational Methodology and Applications.- Hysteretic Systems Subjected to Delta Correlated Input.- A New Second-Order Approximate Reliability Method Based on Hyper-Parabolic Failure Surfaces.- Fatigue Lifetime Prediction for Uncertain Systems.- Probabilistic Assessment of Composite and Smart Composite Structures.- Forecasting of Supply Interruption Rate with Widespread Damage to the Water Supply Network.- Reliability of Silo Ring Under Lognormal Stochastic Pressure Using Stochastic Interpolation.- Improved Bounds on First-Passage Times for Scalar Gaussian Processes.- Reliability Assessment via Log-Likelihood Maximization.- Reliability Analysis of Nonlinear 3-D Frames with PR Connections by SFEM.- Structural Reliability Optimization.- Response Functions and System Reliability of Bridges.- A Survey of Probabilistic Service Life Prediction Methods for Structures.- Prediction Control of Structures by ARMA Modeling.- Reliability Analysis Methods for Linear Uncertain Dynamic Systems.- Improved Formula for Upper Bound of Probability of Failure Based on Means and Variances.- Stochastic Simulation of Initiation and Early Growth of Small Cracks in Creep-Fatigue.- Study of Three Reliability Methods for Fatigue Crack Growth.- Reliability-Based Tail Estimation.- Some Developments in Directional Simulation for Time Variant Structural Systems.- Empirical Limit State Modelling in Reliability Analysis.- Fatigue Specific Linearization Methods.- Stochastic Materials Design of Fibrous Composite Laminates.- Manufacturing Requirements from a Probabilistic Design Analysis Approach to Optimizing for Robust Design.- Advances in Reliability Estimation of MDOF-Systems.- Grain Boundary Failure and Geometrical Models of Creep Damage.- Reliability of Unidirectional Composites Using Genetic Algorithms.- Random Vibration of Structures Under Non-Gaussian Excitation.- Design Sensitivity Random Eigenvalue Problem in Dynamics and Buckling of Structures.- A Probabilistic Model for the Accumulation of Fatigue Damage in Composite Laminates.- Analysis of Structural Control Robustness: Reliability Methods.- Probabilistic Structural Analyses of Ceramic Gas Turbine Components.- Robust Structural System Design Using A System Reliability-Based Design Optimization Method.- Adaptive Importance Sampling (AIS)-Based System Reliability Sensitivity Analysis Method.- Time Dependent System Reliability Under Cumulative Damage.- Reliability Against Fracture with Uncertain Crack Geometry.- Dynamic Snap-Through and Snap-Buckling of Shear-Deformable Panels in a Random Environment.