Probabilistic Approach to Fatigue Assessment for Stay Cables

Many parameters used for predicting times to failure of structure due to fatigue are uncertain and their variations have a big influence on the real lifetime. This paper focus on a global methodology to take main sources of variability in fatigue prediction for stay cables into account. The first step of this methodology is to model the variability of each parameter. Loading is one of the most important sources of variability. Another important source of variability is the strength of the stay cable. Finally, the reliability is assessed using Monte Carlo simulations.Many parameters used for predicting times to failure of structure due to fatigue are uncertain and their variations have a big influence on the real lifetime. This paper focus on a global methodology to take main sources of variability in fatigue prediction for stay cables into account. The first step of this methodology is to model the variability of each parameter. Loading is one of the most important sources of variability. Another important source of variability is the strength of the stay cable. Finally, the reliability is assessed using Monte Carlo simulations