RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT OF STEEL TRUSS BRIDGES CONSIDERING NON-NORMAL DISTRIBUTION OF CROSS-SECTIONAL DIMENSIONS

Abstract

This study presents the reliability assessment of a steel truss bridge on the displacement at mid-span based on Monte Carlo simulation. Area of cross section, Young’s modulus, and applied loads are considered as random variables. The focus of the study is the influence of the area of cross-section distribution on the reliability analysis results. Two different approaches are applied and compared. In the first approach, the dimensional geometries of the cross-section are considered as random variables with a non-normal Pearson Type III distribution, from which the cross-sectional area is determined through the geometric relationship between the component dimensions. In the second approach, the area of cross section is directly assumed to be a random variable with a normal distribution, with corresponding statistical parameters. The parameters of other random variables such as material strength, elastic modulus, and loads are chosen to be the same in both approaches. The results are used to assess the impact of specific areas of cross-section distributions on the reliability of the analysis results.