Modified Single-Loop-Single-Vector Method for Efficient Reliability-Based Design Optimization

Abstract

Single-Loop-Single-Vector (SLSV) method is to resolve the excessive computational cost problem in the reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) by decoupling the nested iteration loops. The key idea of the method is that the reliability constraint is transformed to the equivalent deterministic constraint by approximating the most probable point (MPP) using the point obtained from the previous iteration. However, the SLSV method sometimes suffers from numerical instability or inaccuracy problem. Thus, in this paper, a new modified SLSV method is proposed to improve its convergence capability effectively by utilizing Inactive Design and Active MPP Design together with modified-HMV (Hybrid Mean Value) method. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through some numerical examples.

Keywords

• structural reliability
• optimal design
• reliability-based design optimization
• numerical stability
• modified slsv method