Probabilistic interval reliability of structural systems

The probabilistic reliability approach is the most widely used method for reliability analysis. The recent research shows that the reliabilities of structural systems strongly depend on the parameters of the probability model. It is possible that the little error in the estimation of the parameters may lead to the remarkable error of the resulting probability. In this study, we introduce the interval approach into the conventional reliability theory. We present a novel approach which allows us to obtain the system failure probability interval from the statistical parameter intervals of the basic variables. This approach is a combination of the two techniques, namely the classical reliability theory and the interval analysis. In the end of this paper, we show the feasibility of the proposed approach through two examples of the truss systems.