ABSTRACT
Methods and principles for derivation of joint design parameters for multi-component environmental processes are briefly reviewed. Within the context of structural design, this is frequently referred to as a “load combination problem”. It is focused on application of design contours for analysis of such combinations. Such contours can be utilized for cases where the different load processes are both correlated and uncorrelated. Existing procedures for construction of such contours are summarized, and extension to situations where the characteristic time scales for the different process components are widely different are addressed. Development of the tools based on application of “translation processes” (which are transformed Gaussian processes) are outlined. Examples are given with application to cases where both two and three load components are acting simultaneously.
