Reliability sensitivity analysis and reliability-based design optimization based on stochastic response surfaces method

A reliability sensitivity analysis method is established on the basis of Stochastic Response Surfaces Method (SRSM), and it is applied to reliability-based design optimization. The implicit structural response function is transformed to an explicit one by SRSM in the present method, then structure failure probability and reliability sensitivity can be obtained from the explicit response function. Furthermore, the reliability sensitivity can also provide gradient information for gradient based optimization algorithm. Two examples demonstrate high efficiency and high precision of the present reliability sensitivity method, on which the design efficiency of the reliability-based design optimization is improved.