Overview of All Weeks

Week X: Outline of a Typical Week

Lecture: Short description of the lecture
Tuesday, 15:45-16:45, Hall 1.98
Homework: Short description of homework (reading, exercises, software setup, etc.)
what you should do at home, before Friday!
Workshop: Short description of the workshop
Friday, 9:45-12:30, Hall 1.95

The main goal for the week are provided in boxes like this:
1. along with a sub-goal
… and more sub-goals
n. until the n-th sub-goal

Links to reading and study material are provided in boxes like this.

Links to exercises are provided in boxes like this. The workshops that are to be turned in for a grade and feedback as part of the exercise portfolio use a button like this: Portfolio

Week 1: Introduction Unit CIEM42X0-PD and Reliablity-Based Design

Lecture: Introduction to unit
Reliability-based design principles
Tuesday, 15:45-16:45, Hall 1.98
Homework: Review exercises in textbook Chapter 1. Review MUDE materials for weeks 1.7 and 2.7.
Workshop: Robert will introduce material in class. Questions and link to interactive notebook are here. Solution here
Friday, 9:45-12:30, Hall 1.95

The main goals for this week are:
1. Understand the context and purpose of the three parts of the unit
2. Solve a simple reliability problem (load and resistance)
3. Remember the “stuff” we did in MUDE

Read Chapter 1 of the textbook and do the exercises. Note that the textbook already includes some chapters from MUDE, but make sure you also review these two key chapters in the MUDE book, as will start using these concepts extensively in Week 2: continuous distributions and extreme value analysis.
Lecture:
- Slides (PDF), Part 1 (unit introduction and logistics)
- Slides (PDF), Part 2 (reliability-based design context)
- Collegerama recording (all recordings listed here).

Focus primarily on Chapter 1 of the book and make sure you work through the exercise (Section 1.3) before Friday.
Review the assignments from MUDE, particularly the workshops from Project 11 and Week 15, as well as Project 4 and Project 11.

Week 2: Extreme Value Analysis

Lecture: Extreme Value Analysis (Slides)
Tuesday, 15:45-16:45, Hall 1.98
Homework: Review of MUDE material. There are also supplementary videos in the HOS Workbook. See links to material below.
Workshop: We will work through a real-life application of EVA; it is more or less exactly what will be expected from you in your final assessment for the module!
Instructions for getting started here
Friday, 9:45-12:30, Hall 1.95

The main goals for this week are:
1. Apply extreme value analysis to datasets
2. Apply techniques to support the threshold selection

Reading in HOS Workbook (EVA section)
Lecture Slides (PDF)
- Collegerama recording (all recordings listed here)

Review your own Project 11 (Week 2.7) from MUDE (see your Group GitLab repository). The solution can be found here, make sure you read through it thoroughly!

Week 3: Software!

Lecture: No lecture this week
Homework: Do WS03.
Workshop: No in-class session this week. However, you can find the workshop here.

The main goals for this week are:
1. Set up OpenTURNS Python package
2. Learn to use Python virtual environments and VS Code (optional but highly recommended!).

Software page of this website

WS03.

Week 4: Component Reliability

Lecture: Component reliability introduction, based on material in workbook. Note that there were no slides; use the workbook material and the Collegerama recording to review. Collegerama recording (all recordings listed here).
Workshop: WS04 is about a component reliability problem.

The main goals for this week are:
1. Formulate and solve a component reliability problem with equations and code.
2. Define a limit state function for a component.
3. Use OpenTURNS Python package to solve a component reliability problem

Workbook and review of component reliability in the online textbook

The in-class exercises (Tuesday) was to formulate a limit-state function for a dam under hydrostatic loading, taking into account horizontal force and sliding friction.

Week 5: Component Reliability (continued)

Lecture: Recap of WS04. Interpretation of component reliability analysis. Note that there were no slides; we used the solution to WS04 (especially the graphical interpretation. To review and prepare for WS05, use the workbook material (FORM page here) and the Collegerama recording (all recordings listed here).
Workshop: WS05 will apply component reliability techniques to an existing deterministic problem (a FEM code) and report the results. This workshop is turned in for feedback/grading (should be possible to finish in class on Friday, but you have until Tuesday, May 28 at 4:00 AM to submit it; you can choose your own groups). You can access the assignment via GitHub classroom with this link](https://classroom.github.com/a/dT6xfm9u){:target=”_blank”}.

The main goals for this week are:
1. Identify the key results of a FORM analysis and be able to interpret them.
2. Explain the differences, advantages and disadvantages between MCS and FORM.
3. Clearly report the setup, analysis and results of a component reliability analysis.

Additional material is provided in the component reliability section of the Workbook.

Review WS04 and be sure you understand how the OpenTURNs code sets up and executes the MCS and FORM algorithms, as we will rely on this in WS05; the solution (Report.md and Analysis_solution.ipynb) has been posted to your GitHub repositories (update your fork) and the Workbook.

Week 6: System Reliability

Lecture: Closure of component reliability, where we discussed the standard normal space a bit further and importance factors. Insight provided into the fact that the definition of the importance factors is different, depending on the software you use. This is partially covered in the Workbook on the FORM and FORM/MCS comparison pages (theoretical derivations can also be found in the textbooks). Otherwise, view the Collegerama recording (all recordings listed here).
Workshop: WS06 will cover Fault Trees as an approach for solving system reliability problems. Files can be found in the Workbook here, and a brief introduction to Fault Trees is provided here; there is no Git repository for this workshop.

The main goals for this week are:
1. Refresh the system reliability methods covered in MUDE.
2. Use Fault Trees to conceptualize and solve a system reliability problem.

Review the parallel and series system reliability approaches in the Risk and Reliability Book. Additional material on Fault Trees is provided in the system reliability section of the Workbook.

The bridge and city exercise in the online textbook is good review material.

Week 7: System Reliability, Part 2

Lecture: This week we continue with Systems Reliability, but will pick up a few extra tips for Component Reliability as well, based on the results of WS05. Otherwise, view the Collegerama recording (all recordings listed here).
Workshop: The in-class session for week 7 and 8 are dedicated to working on Workshop 08. There is no WS07. Workshop 08 can be started at any point and must be turned in before 4AM on Friday, June 14; the instructions are available in the workbook; there is no Git repository for this workshop. You are also free to use the in-class sessions to ask about other probabilistic design aspects of your design projects.

The main goals for this week are:
1. Practice system reliability methods by applying a fault tree to your design project.
2. Learn a few extra tips about probabilistic design and component reliability analysis.

Review the parallel and series system reliability approaches in the Risk and Reliability Book. Additional material on Fault Trees is provided in the system reliability section of the Workbook.

You should review WS06 if you missed class last Friday, as it introduced an essential method for quantifying and conceptualizing system reliability.