General response surface reliability analysis for fuzzy-random uncertainty both in basic variables and in state variables

A general response surface(RS) method is presented for reliability analysis of complex structure/mechanism with fuzzy-random uncertainty both in basic variables and in failure state variables. On the basis of equivalent transformation from fuzzy basic variable to random basic variable, the fuzziness and randomness in the basic variables are considered simultaneously in the presented general RS method. Once the fuzzy basic variables are transformed into the random basic variables, the conventional RS method is employed to establish the general RS for the complex structure/mechanism with implicit limit state equation by finite element numerical simulation. Furthermore, the general failure probability is defined according to the probability formula for fuzzy-random event by taking the fuzziness and randomness in the failure-safety state into consideration, and an appropriate fuzzy operator is adopted to calculate the general failure probability for the complex structure/mechanism with multiple implicit failure modes. Finally, a general reliability analysis of an elastic linkage mechanism is introduced to illustrate the present method.