Reliability-based optimal design of series structural systems

A robust approach for approximately solving reliability-based optimal desig n problems, for series structural systems, is developed. The approach refor mulates the problems by replacing reliability terms with deterministic func tions. The reformulated problems can be solved by existing semiinfinite opt imization algorithms, producing solutions that are identical to those of th e original problems, when the limit-state functions are affine, or when fir st-order reliability approximations are used. An important advantage of the approach is that the required reliability and optimization calculations ar e completely decoupled, allowing flexibility in the choice of the optimizat ion algorithm and the reliability method. Three sets of examples demonstrat e applications of the approach.