ABSTRACT
The safety of the building constructions is a matter of calculating probabilities. Max Mayer, 1926The values of safety factors, as well as closely associated values of design loads and design resistances, were improved and modified mainly empirically, by the way of generalization of multi-year experience and exploitation of the structures. The traditionalists neglect uncertainties in the loading conditions, in the mechanical properties of structures, in boundary conditions, in geometric characteristics, and in other parameters entering into the description of the problem at hand. The theorists utilizing the fuzzy sets approach base their development on the notion of the membership function, in contrast to the concept of the probability density function utilized by probability proponents. The set of scientists belonging to the groups dealing with the deterministic mechanics or with the non-deterministic mechanics are mutually exclusive. A very limited number of scholars simultaneously deal with both approaches. Even smaller numbers of researchers are engaged in seemingly competitive uncertainty analyses techniques.
