A procedure for structural reliability analysis based on meshless methods

Abstract

Aiming at eliminating the dependency on a mesh of the classical modeling methods, meshless methods have been developed in recent years. Additionally, research in meshless methods allied to probabilistic analysis needs much attention. In this context, this paper presents a reliability procedure that couples first and second order reliability methods and heuristic-based optimization method with an element-free Galerkin method. Numerical applications in statics problems are used to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of proposed methodology. These examples consist in a bar and a beam whose load, material and geometrical parameters are considered as random variables. The results show that the predicted reliability levels are accurate in comparison with similar approach that uses analytical and finite element analysis to evaluate the limit state functions. © 2007 Civil-Comp Press.

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