Industrial Short Course on Reliability Engineering

Industrial Short Course on Reliability Engineering
(Emphasis on Structural & Geotechnical Applications)

Speakers and participants.

The short course on Reliability Engineering was intended to encourage the practicing engineers in Taiwan and Asia to recognize and adopt modern scientific methods for handling uncertainties in the planning, design, and maintenance of engineering systems.  The fundamental concepts and methods for modeling engineering uncertainties were introduced, largely through examples of engineering problems, and practical methods for the analysis of their effects on system performance were described.  These concepts and methods were followed by in-depth practical and illustrative applications in structural engineering and geotechnical engineering.  The same concepts were equally applicable to many other areas of engineering.

The material presented in the 3-day course served to advance the knowledge base of practicing civil engineers in industry and government for more intelligent approaches to treat uncertainties and evaluate their effects on safety and performance of engineering systems, as well as formulate proper basis for intelligent risk-based decisions such as selection of appropriate factors of safety for design.

Outline of Topics

Day 1 - Lecturer - Prof. Alfredo H-S. Ang, Univ. of California, Irvine; and Director, TBTC, Taiwan Tech

• On Fundamentals of Reliability Engineering:
1. Introduction
2. Basic Tools - Fundamentals of Applied Probability
3. Reliability Analysis and Reliability-Based Design
4. Risk Analysis and Formulation of Risk-Averse (or conservative) Decisions
5. Reliability-based Wind Resistant Structural Analysis and Design by Prof. Rwey-Hua Cherng from Taiwan Tech

Day 2 - Lecturer - Prof. Dan Frangopol, Lehigh University

• On Applications in Structural Engineering:
1. Design of new structures
2. Condition assessment and system performance
3. Inspection, maintenance and repair
4. Life-cycle cost assessment and design
5. Design under Uncertainties by Prof. Guo-Wei Liao from Taiwan Tech

Day 3 - Lecturer - Prof. Robert Gilbert, University of Texas, Austin

• On Applications in Geotechnical Engineering:
1. Reliability-Based Design
2. Value of Information Analysis
3. Risk Assessment
4. Continue on Risk Assessment