Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Introduction to concepts and applications of structural reliability. Topics include computing first- and second-order estimates of failure probabilities of engineered systems, computing sensitivities of failure probabilities to assumed parameter values, measuring relative importance of random variables associated with systems, identifying relative advantages and disadvantages of various analytical reliability methods, using reliability tools to calibrate simplified building codes, and performing reliability calculations related to performance-based engineering. Letter grading.

Units: 4.0