Reliability of Structures

by Andrzej Nowak, Kevin R. Collins

Reliability of Structures enables both students and practising engineers to appreciate how to value and handle reliability as an important dimension of structural design. It discusses the concepts of limit states and limit state functions, and presents methodologies for calculating reliability indices and calibrating partial safety factors. It also supplies information on the probability distributions and parameters used to characterize both applied loads and member resistances. This revised and extended second edition contains more discussions of US and international codes and the issues underlying their development. There is significant revision and expansion of the discussion on Monte Carlo simulation, along with more examples. The book serves as a textbook for a one-semester course for advanced undergraduates or graduate students, or as a reference and guide to consulting structural engineers. Its emphasis is on the practical applications of structural reliability theory rather than the theory itself. Consequently, probability theory is treated as a tool, and enough is given to show the novice reader how to calculate reliability. Some background in structural engineering and structural mechanics is assumed. A solutions manual is available upon qualifying course adoption.

407 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2012

About the author

Andrzej Nowak is a permanent half-time member of the Psychology Department, Florida Atlantic University. He is also Director of the Center for Complex Systems at University of Warsaw, Poland, and he holds faculty positions at University of Warsaw and the Professional School of Social Psychology in Warsaw. Prof. Nowak is one of the world's leading experts on the modeling and computer simulation of social processes. Using cellular automata, he has modeled the emergence of public opinion in society and linear versus non-linear societal transitions. At FAU, he conducts both simulation and experimental research in the Dynamical Social Psychology Lab in collaboration with Robin Vallacher. Current research projects include the use of cellular automata to simulate the emergence and maintenance of self-concept and linear and non-linear scenarios of societal change, the use of attractor neural networks to model interpersonal and group dynamics, and the use of coupled dynamical systems to simulate the emergence of personality through social coordination. Dr. Nowak is also developing software for identifying attractors (equilibrium states) in the temporal patterns of thought and emotion on the part of people diagnosed with various forms of mental illness.

http://www.dynamicsofconflict.iccc.ed...

(17th March 2016