Foreword
The fundamental aim of structural reliability analysis is to obtain a structure with an economical design, an economical maintenance program and a sufficient degree of reliability.

The reliability of a structure is traditionally achieved by deterministic methods using safety factors calculated generally under conservative estimators of influent parameters. Structural reliability analysis methods use probabilistic approaches for assessing safety factors or for optimizing maintenance and inspection programs. These methods become essential in the frame of long-term maintenance or life extension.

The aims and the scope of this book are:

• to present methods and applications to improve the different data, generally poor, limited and incomplete (operating experience, degradation cinetics, non destructive testing data, transients, material properties,...) necessary for implementing a structural reliability analysis;
• to present more and more industrial applications of structural reliability, for safety, design, maintenance or life extension purposes;
• to promote the structural reliability analysis, to further dissemination and exchange, to convince authorities and companies that probabilistic analysis is essential for risk analysis, for better assessment of the probability of rupture of a structure, given that material properties, degradation cinetics, stresses and operating conditions are of a random or incompletely known nature, and the preventive actions (mitigation, maintenance, efficiency of the maintenance) can have random impacts or insufficiently known impacts;
• to stimulate research and development in structural reliability analysis;
• to permit European cooperation in this field, maybe to identify partnerships for European projects.

Several European experts from different countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway) and from several sectors (aerospace, nuclear and fossil power plants, consultants, research laboratories and universities) took part in this work.

ESReDA
European Safety Reliability & Data Association (ESReDA) is a European Association established in 1992 to promote research, application and training in Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS). The Association provides a forum for the exchange of information, data and current research in safety and reliability.

Membership of ESReDA is open to organisations, private and governmental institutes, industry researches and consultants who are active in the field of Safety and Reliability.

Editor: André Lannoy

Published by: Det Norske Veritas

The price for the handbook “Lifetime Management of Structures” is NOK 850,00 incl. handling/shipping fee.

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