Structural reliability analysis based on the concepts of entropy, fractional moment and dimensional reduction method

The structural reliability analysis is typically based on a model that describes the response, such as maximum deformation or stress, as a function of several random variables. In principle, reliability can be evaluated once the probability distribution of the response becomes available. The paper presents a new method to derive the probability distribution of a function of random variables representing the structural response. The derivation is based on the maximum entropy principle in which constraints are specified in terms of the fractional moments, in place of commonly used integer moments. In order to compute the fractional moments of the response function, a multiplicative form of dimensional reduction method (M-DRM) is presented. Several examples presented in the paper illustrate the numerical accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method in comparison to the Monte Carlo simulation method. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.