A Mathematical Programming Approach for Finding the Stochastically Most Relevant Failure Mechanism

In calculating the failure probability of structural systems, the most important operation is the search for the stochasticly most relevant failure mechanism. The nodal and mesh description for the modelling of a flexural frame with fully plastic behaviour and slabs discretized into triangular finite elements whose behaviour conforms the yield line theory are considered. The mathematical programming method arising from these models can be formulated as the minimization of a quadratic concave function over a linear domain.