CE 541/ME 583 - Reliability of Engineering Systems

Syllabus for CE 541/ME 583 - Spring 2005

Text: Reliability of Structures by A.J. Nowak, and K.R. Collins, McGraw-Hill, 2000

Details regarding class organization... and Engineering Outreach and Contact information
Class Date Topic Reading Assignment
1 Jan 12 Introduction Example1, Example 2 1.1-1.5 Get Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™
2 Jan 14 Review of Probability Handout, 2.1-2.3, 2.7-2.9
  Jan 17 MLK - Human Rights Day    
3 Jan 19 Probability Distributions Handout 2.5, 7, 9, 10
4 Jan 21 Extreme Value Distributions; Mathcad Example (PDF) 2.4
5 Jan 24 Asympotitic Distributions; Gumbel's Classifications; 2.5-2.6 Homework #2
6 Jan 26 Order Statistics; Order Stat Ex, (PDF) Spreadsheet 2.10  
7 Jan 28 Bayes' Theorem, Bayes' Theorem Example, (PDF) 3.1-3.5
8 Jan 31 Transformation of Variables; Mathcad Example (PDF) 5.1-5.2
9 Feb 2 The Reliability Problem 5.3 Homework #3
10 Feb 4 Second Moment Formulations 5.3
11 Feb 7 Linear Limit States, Example (PDF) 5.3
12 Feb 9 Invariant Formulations 5.4 Text 3.6 and Homework #4
13 Feb 11 Nonlinear Limit States (PDF) 5.4  
14 Feb 14 Transformation Methods 5.4
15 Feb 16 Examples (PDF), Example 2 (PDF) 5.4 Text 5.1 and Homework #5
16 Feb 18 Determination of the Safety Index 4.1.1-4.1.3
Feb 21 President's Day    
17 Feb 23 Monte Carlo Simulation 4.1.4-4.1.6 Text 5.4 and Homework #6
18 Feb 25 EXAM #1 (Old Exam)    
19 Feb 28 Examples: Mathcad, (PDF), FOSM comparison (PDF) 4.1.7-4.1.8
20 Mar 2 Importance Sampling; Example (PDF)   4.1, 12
21 Mar 4 Latin Hypercube Sampling, 4.2 Project Assignment
22 Mar 7 Latin Hypercube Example (PDF)  
23 Mar 9 Antithetic Sampling; Antithetic Sampling Example (PDF) Comparison  
24 Mar 11 Correlated Random Variables, Example, (PDF)   Homework #9 by Monte Carlo & Latin Hypercube
Mar 14-18 Spring Recess
25 Mar 21 System Reliability 9.1-9.2
26 Mar 23 Series System Probability Bounds 9.3.1-9.3.2  
27 Mar 25 Ditlevsen Bounds, Example (PDF) 9.4  
28 Mar 28 Parallel Systems 9.5 Project Proposal
29 Mar 30 Probability Evaluation 9.6 9.1
30 Apr 1 Approximate Methods, Spreadsheet  
31 Apr 4 Event Trees   Homework #11
32 Apr 6 Exam #2 (Old Exam)  
33 Apr 8 Codes and Structural Reliability, Example (PDF) 8.1-8.4
34 Apr 11 Code Calibration 8.5-8.6
35 Apr 13 Modeling of Uncertainty 10.1-10.2 8.2, 3
36 Apr 15 Quantification of Uncertainty 10.3-10.5  
37 Apr 18 Distributions 10.6 Project Progress Report
38 Apr 20 Human Error  
39 Apr 22 Time Dependent Reliability  
40 Apr 25 Discrete Processes  
41 Apr 27 Discrete Process Examples   Homework #13
42 Apr 29 EXAM #3 Old Exam, Excel Sol'n  
43 May 2 Fatigue, Example, (PDF)  
44 May 4  
45 May 6 Presentations
46 May 13 10: 00 A.M. - Presentations
9.3.3-9.3.4

The reading assignments should be completed before each lecture.

Homework is due on the dates shown.