ABSTRACT
Traditionally, factor of safety has always been used to evaluate the stability of a given structure. However, factor of safety is a definite value and is established with no consideration of any uncertainties and variability of the concerned objective. In this paper, the difference between reliability and factor of safety is briefly introduced. In addition, taking a given concrete structure as an example, the Monte Carlo simulation method is introduced for the reliability analysis. This research may be helpful to provide a method for evaluating the safety degree more effectively and completely.
