Limited descent-based mean value method for inverse reliability analysis

The robustness and efficiency of inverse reliability methods are important issues in reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) using performance measure approach (PMA). The adaptive modified chaos control (ACC), step length adjustment (SA), and relaxed mean value (RMV) methods were recently implemented to improve the robustness and efficiency of PMA. In this paper, a limited descent mean value (LDMV) method is proposed to improve robustness and efficiency of inverse reliability analysis for either convex or concave probabilistic constraints. The LDMV formula is dynamically adjusted by an adaptive step size based on the advanced mean value method (AMV). The robustness and efficiency of the ACC, SA, RMV, and proposed LDMV methods are compared through six nonlinear performance functions. The results illustrated a similar robust performance between LDMV against RMV and FSL methods and superior to the ACC method. The proposed LDMV improves the robustness and efficiency of the inverse first-order reliability method in comparison with existing reliability methods.