Fuzzy Reliability Analysis of Concrete Structures by Using a Genetically Powered Simulation

The paper deals with the reliability assessment of concrete framed structures. Due to the uncertainties involved in the problem, the geometrical and mechanical properties which define the structural problem cannot be considered as deterministic quantities. In this work, such uncertainties are modeled by using a fuzzy criterion which considers the model parameters bounded between minimum and maximum suitable values. The problem is formulated in terms of safety factor and the membership function over the failure interval is defined for several limit states by using a simulation technique. In particular, the strategic planning of the simulation is here found by a genetic optimization algorithm and the structural analyses are carried out by taking both material and geometrical non-linearity into account. An application to a prestressed concrete continuous beam shows the effectiveness of the proposed procedure.