Finite element and reliability: a method for compound variables—application on a cracked heating system Original Research Article

Nuclear engineering systems are designed to ensure safety criteria. To predict the behavior of mechanical systems, the finite element analysis (FEA) is actually the main tool for numerical analysis of mechanical problems. In order to design a system under data variability considerations, performance functions have to be defined by the relationship between the action effects and the material strengths. Then a certain level of safety should be satisfied with sufficiently high probability. This is the subject of the reliability theory. Controlling a FEA software in order to carry out the reliability analysis, it is to define a ‘combination method’. This paper proposes a general method for the reliability analysis combined with FEA codes. The method is efficient for independent, correlated and compound random variables. The proposed method is illustrated by numerical example of a cracked membrane exposed to thermal shortening. The risk to evaluate is represented by the crack propagation in the material.