Reliability-Based Design Optimization of Structures using Modified Weighted Simulation Method

Weighted Simulation-based Design Method (WSDM) is recently developed as an efficient method for Reliability- Based Design Optimization (RBDO). Despite simplicity, this method degrades effectiveness to obtain accurate optimum design for high dimension RBDO. Besides, its application range is restricted to RBDOs including only random design variables. In the present study, local search strategy is employed to enhance the accuracy of conventional WSDOM, and to reduce the computational cost. Besides, a shifting strategy is proposed to increase the application range of WSDM for handling general RBDO problems. The efficiency of the proposed methods is investigated by solving some structural reliability problems. Comparisonof the obtained results with exact solutions confirms accuracy and superiority of the proposed method for solving various engineering problems.