Another look at risk and structural reliability criteria

The paper presents a comparison of societal risk criteria and the several structural reliability criteria for two assumed profiles of consequence severity. Starting from the societal risk (FN) criteria (risk neutral) used in the UK and the Dutch criteria (risk averse), the consistent set of criteria is developed based on the maximum average individual risk and the number of people exposed (in a building) and compared against three major structural reliability codes. The findings indicate that there is incompatibility between the safety risk criteria and structural reliability criteria regarding risk aversion, that safety level provided by load bearing structures may be intolerable in comparison with the societal risk criteria as used informally for assessing risk to the general public in the vicinity of major hazards installation.