Mechanical/structural reliability evaluation through Esscherʹs method of approximation

A simple and effective computational procedure is presented for computing probabilities of failure of mechanical and structural systems. The method provides very close approximate solutions for well behaved linear limit state functions with independent normal or nonnormal, continuous or discrete random variables. But the random variables should have moment generating functions. This method is also applicable when the limit state function is a hyper sphere. Numerical examples are given including one for hyper sphere limit state.