An Improvement in the Static Method for Limit Analysis of Structures with Stochastic Strength Variations

On the basis of the static and kinematic theorems of probabilistic limit analysis 1-3], a new procedure to study the random strength of rigid-plastic structures is developed. This procedure leads to upper bounds to the failure probability, which show a remarkable improvement when compared with similar results so far obtained from “static” considerations. As an example, extensive numerical calculations carried out for a simple portal frame with random limit moments are presented and some observations are formulated.