Simulation techniques for reliability evaluation - a case study

Reliability evaluation of structural components using Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) method provides very accurate values. However, time complexity is high for failure probability calculations using MCS method, as the sample size required is generally large. Variance reduction techniques like Importance Sampling Method (ISM) and Adaptive Sampling Method (ASM) reduce time complexity. The case of cylindrical water tank considering failure of beams in flexure and columns in axial compression is presented here and failure probabilities of beams and columns are evaluated using the simulation techniques of Monte Carlo, Importance sampling and Adaptive sampling