Multiple linearization method for nonlinear reliability analysis

A multiple linearization algorithm for the reliability analysis of nonlinear limit states is presented in this paper. This method identifies several hyperplane approximations to the limit state and computes the failure probability through the union or intersection of the failure domains corresponding to each segment. This approach is useful for both component and system level reliability problems. The multiple linearization points are determined through the secant method. Correlation information about the hyperplanes is used to achieve computational efficiency. Numerical examples are presented to show the benefits of the proposed method.