Daniel Straub - Böcker

This volume contains 28 papers by renowned international experts on the latest advances in structural reliability methods and applications, engineering risk analysis and decision making, new optimization techniques and various applications in civil engineering. Moreover, several contributions focus on the assessment and optimization of existing structural systems.All contributions were presented at the 15th Working Conference of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 7.5 on Reliability and Optimization of Structural Systems, held at the Oskar von Miller Forum in Munich, Germany, April 2010. Working Group 7.5’s purposes are to promote modern structural system reliability and optimization theory and its applications, to stimulate research, development and application of structural system reliability and optimization theory, to assist and advance research and development in these fields, to further the dissemination and exchange of information on reliability and optimization of structural systems, and to encourage education in structural system reliability and optimization theory.This volume is intended for structural and mechanical engineers working and researching in structural optimization and risk/reliability analysis, applied to structural and infrastructural systems.

This is a unique book addressing the integration of risk methodology from various fields. It will stimulate intellectual debate and communication across disciplines, promote better risk management practices and contribute to the development of risk management methodologies. Individual chapters explain fundamental risk models and measurement, and address risk and security issues from diverse areas such as finance and insurance, the health sciences, life sciences, engineering and information science. Integrated Risk Sciences is an emerging discipline that considers risks in different fields, aiming at a common language, and at sharing and improving methods developed in different fields. Readers should have a Bachelor degree and have taken at least one basic university course in statistics and probability. The main goal of the book is to provide basic knowledge on risk and security in a common language; the authors have taken particular care to ensure that all content can readily be understood by doctoral students and researchers across disciplines. Each chapter provides simple case studies and examples, open research questions and discussion points, and a selected bibliography inviting readers to further study.