First Order Reliability Method with Truncated Random Variables

Author

Xiaoping Du, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
Zhen Hu

Abstract

In many engineering applications, the probability distributions of some random variables are truncated; these truncated distributions are resulted from restricting the domain of other probability distributions. If the first order reliability method (FORM) is directly used, the truncated random variables will be transformed into unbounded standard normal distributions. This treatment may result in large errors in reliability analysis. In this work, we modify FORM so that the truncated random variables are transformed into truncated standard normal variables. After the first order approximation and variable transformation, saddlepoint approximation is then used to estimate the reliability. Without increasing the computational cost, the proposed method is generally more accurate than the original FORM for problems with truncated random variables. © 2012 American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Recommended Citation

X. Du and Z. Hu, "First Order Reliability Method with Truncated Random Variables," Journal of Mechanical Design, Transactions of the ASME, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Jan 2012.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4007150

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2012 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2012