Method for enumerating significant general failure modes of structural system

A generalized failure was defined by taking both randomness and fuzziness into consideration in the structural reliability. The effects of the parameters describing the random-fuzzy uncertainty of both the basic variables and the state variables on the probability of failure mode were investigated. The factors to be considered in enumerating significant elements were analyzed. The membership functions of the limit state variable to the fuzzy safety and fuzzy failure sets were determined. Then an engineering criterion was presented by synthesizing the effects of the mean, the coefficient of variation and the membership parameters to select the generalized failure modes. Simulation results show that the method is feasible and effective.