Reliability model and probability analysis method for pitting corrosion under mechanical loading

Purpose Corrosion is one of the common damage mechanisms in many engineering structures such as marine structures, petroleum pipelines, aerospace and nuclear reactor. However, the service performance of metal materials and structures is gradually degenerating with the increase of service life due to the rapid growth of corrosion damages. Thus, the coupled effects for corrosion damage in reliability analysis should be considered urgently. Then, the purpose of this paper is to develop the corrosion damage physical model and the corresponding reliability analysis methods, which consider the coupled effect of corrosion damage. Design/methodology/approach A failure physical model, considering the coupled effect of pitting growth, crack and crack propagation, is presented in this paper. Sequentially, the corrosion reliability with respect to pitting physical damage can be investigated. The presented pitting damage physical model is formulated as time-variant performance limit state functions, which include the crack transition, crack growth and fracture failure mechanics. The first-passage failure criterion is used to construct the corrosion reliability framework, involving in the pitting damage model with the increase of service life. Findings Results demonstrate that the multiplicative dimensional reduction (MDR) method behaves much better than FORM no matter in accuracy or efficiency. The proposed corrosion reliability method is applicable for dealing with the damage failure model of the structural pitting corrosion. Originality/value The MDR method is used to calculate the corrosion reliability index of a given structure with fewer function calls. Finally, an aeronautical metal material is used to demonstrate the efficiency and precision of the proposed corrosion reliability method when the failure physical model considering the coupled effects of mechanical stresses and corrosion environment is adopted.

Acceleration Response First Passage Failure Probability Analysis Method for Nonlinear Package

The acceleration response first passage failure problem of the nonlinear package base excited by Gaussian white noise is analyzed. The model correction factor method (MCFM) is implemented in conjunction with the first-order reliability method (FORM) to analyze the first passage failure probability of the nonlinear package. The white noise is discretized in standard normal space, and an iterative algorithm is proposed to find the design point of the packaging system. On the design point, the hypersurface representing the limit-state function of the nonlinear package is replaced approximately by a hyperplane representing the limit-state function of an equivalent linear system, and the FORM is employed to calculate the failure probability of the packaging system. The accuracy of this method is verified by crude Monte Carlo simulations. Numerical simulations are carried out to observe the effects of system parameters variations on failure probability which can be used for the improvement of packaging design.

Seismic Reliability Analysis of Long-Span Cable-stayed Bridges

Earthquake motion is a random process, and thus, analyzing the seismic responses and dynamic reliability of cable-stayed bridges based on the random vibration theory is important. In this paper, dynamic reliability is investigated under earthquake loads by applying the stochastic vibration theory to the Sutong Yangtze River Highway Bridge. The response statistics are obtained from random vibration analyses, and the dynamic reliability of the normal stress of several key cross sections in the bridge is analyzed using the first-order second-moment method and the first-passage failure theory. The dynamic reliability analysis shows that the reliability index changes with girder section location and meets the design requirements. The analysis shows that the Sutong Bridge has adequate earthquake resistance ability. The structure’s earthquake resistance is appraised to provide an important theoretical reference for improving the seismic resistance design methods.

Random Vibration Analysis of Train Moving over Slab Track on Bridge under Track Irregularities and Earthquakes by Pseudoexcitation Method

This paper investigates the random vibration and the dynamic reliability of operation stability of train moving over slab track on bridge under track irregularities and earthquakes by the pseudoexcitation method (PEM). Each vehicle is modeled by multibody dynamics. The track and bridge is simulated by a rail-slab-girder-pier interaction finite element model. The coupling equations of motion are established based on the wheel-rail interaction relationship. The random excitations of the track irregularities and seismic accelerations are transformed into a series of deterministic pseudoexcitations by PEM. The time-dependent power spectral densities (PSDs) of the random vibration of the system are obtained by step-by-step integration method, and the corresponding dynamic reliability is estimated based on the first-passage failure criterion. A case study is then presented in which a high-speed train moves over a slab track resting on a simply supported girder bridge. The PSD characteristics of the random vibration of the bridge and train are analyzed, the influence of the wheel-rail-bridge interaction models on the random vibration of the bridge and train is discussed, and furthermore the influence of train speed, earthquake intensity, and pier height on the dynamic reliability of train operation stability is studied.