Problems and prospects of reliability-based optimization

Reliability has long been recognized as a safety constraint in structural engineering. That is, an optimum design should balance both cost and safety. Nevertheless, applications of reliability analysis in recent years have been primarily aimed at establishing the basis for code factors. Similarly, most optimization studies have used accepted code safety factors without introducing reliability as explicit design constraints. This paper reviews the methodology of component and system reliability analysis and examples of their inclusion in optimization applications. The limitations in the explicit use of reliability in optimization are discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.