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Reliability of structures with load history-dependent strength and an application to wood members Yao, Zhao-Cheng

Abstract

Because of an interaction between the load history and the material's properties a reduction in the serviceability of safety of a structure may be seen as the result of a random process of damage accumulation with time. A damage model is proposed and verified to deal with this type of problem in general, and specifically with duration-of-load effects in timber structures. Through comparisons with and discussion of other damage accumulation models, the proposed model is found to be both suitable to represent experimental results and relatively easy to use. A reliability analysis for a single structural member with a service life of 30 years is studied for different snow loading conditions of three Canadian cities,using the damage model in combination with Rackwitz-Fissler's algorithm. A simplified analysis method is proposed and compared with a large-scale Monte-Carlo simulation. The results of the reliability analysis are found to be satisfactory. Finally, the implementation of the reliability analysis in a simple design guideline for load duration effects is discussed.

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