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<doi>0965-cd</doi>
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<article-title>Reliability Function for the Interval Stress Process of Randomly Excited Structures</article-title>
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<author>Filippo Giunta<sup>1,a</sup>, Giuseppe Muscolino<sup>1,b</sup> and Alba Sofi<sup>2</sup></author>

<aff><sup>1</sup>Department of Engineering, University of Messina, Villaggio S. Agata, Messina, Italy</aff>

<email><a href="mailto:fgiunta@unime.it"><sup>a</sup>fgiunta@unime.it</a></email>

<email><a href="mailto:gmuscolino@unime.it"><sup>b</sup>gmuscolino@unime.it</a></email>

<aff><sup>2</sup>Department of Architecture and Territory, University &#8220;Mediterranea&#8221; of Reggio Calabria, Salita Melissari, Feo di Vito, Reggio Calabria, Italy</aff>

<email><a href="mailto:alba.sofi@unirc.it">alba.sofi@unirc.it</a></email>

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<title>ABSTRACT</title>
<p>This paper deals with reliability analysis of linear discretized structures with interval parameters subjected to stationary Gaussian multi-correlated random excitation. Within the interval framework, the range of the <italic>interval reliability function</italic> for the critical stress process may be significantly overestimated by the <italic>classical interval analysis</italic> due to the so-called <italic>dependency phenomenon</italic> which is particularly insidious for stress-related quantities. To limit the dangerous effects of this phenomenon, a novel sensitivity-based procedure relying on a combination of the <italic>Interval Rational Series Expansion</italic> and the <italic>Improved Interval Analysis</italic> via <italic>Extra Unitary Interval</italic> is proposed. This procedure allows us to detect the combinations of the bounds of the uncertain parameters which yield the lower bound and upper bound of the <italic>interval reliability function</italic> for the selected stress process. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis enables to identify the most influential parameters on structural reliability.<br/>
A numerical application is presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed procedure and its usefulness in view of decision-making in engineering practice.</p>
<p><italic>Keywords: </italic>Interval uncertainties, random excitation, interval stress, reliability analysis, Interval Rational Series Expansion, Improved Interval Analysis.</p>
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