ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT The reliability-based design of structural components has been well established based on calibration. However, the reliability-based design of structures as a system remains an issue that has not been addressed adequately. This issue requires the assessment of the system reliability of a complete structure, considering the effects of both the aleatory and epistemic types of uncertainty. This can be addressed effectively using the PDEM (probability density evolution method) for the effects of the aleatory uncertainty, resulting in the PDF of the critical state of a system. The effects of the epistemic uncertainty may be included as the error of the mean-value of the critical state of the system. For illustration, the method is applied to the minimum life-cycle cost aseismic design of a high-rise building in Mexico City.
