The book describes a systematic stochastic modeling approach for assessing thermal-fatigue crack-growth in mixing tees, based on the power spectral density of temperature fluctuation at the inner pipe surface. It shows the development of a frequency-temperature response function in the framework of single-input, single-output (SISO) methodology from random noise/signal theory under sinusoidal input. The frequency response of stress intensity factor (SIF) is obtained by a polynomial fitting procedure of thermal stress profiles at various instants of time. The method, which takes into account the variability of material properties, and has been implemented in a real-world application, estimates the probabilities of failure by considering a limit state function and Monte Carlo analysis, which are based on the proposed stochastic model. Written in a comprehensive and accessible style, this book presents a new and effective method for assessing thermal fatigue crack, and it is intended as a concise and practice-oriented guide for all undergraduate students, young scientists and researchers dealing with probabilistic assessment of structural integrity.

This volume contains the edited version of lectures and selected research contributions presented at the NATO ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE on MECHANICAL BEHA VI OUR OF MATERIALS AT HIGH TEMPERATURE, held in Sesimbra, Portugal, 12th-22nd September 1995, and organized by 1ST-Lisbon Institute of Technology, PortugaL The Institute was attended by 88 participants, including 15 lecturers from 17 countries including five CP countries. The lecturers were leading scientists and technologists from universities, research institutions and industry. The students were mainly young PhD students and junior academic or research staff with postgraduate qualifications (MSc or PhD). Fourteen students were from the five CP countries. The students presented research papers or posters during the Institute reporting the current progress of their research projects. A total of thirty three lectures, ten research papers and fifty posters were presented. This book does not contain the poster presentations and seven research papers were selected for publication. All the sessions were very active and quite extensive discussions on scientific aspects took place during the Institute. The Advanced Study Institute provided a forum for interaction among scientists and engineers from different areas of research, and young researchers.

This book is a collective work by many leading scientists, analysts, mathematicians, and engineers who have been working at the front end of reliability science and engineering. The book covers conventional and contemporary topics in reliability science, all of which have seen extended research activities in recent years. The methods presented in this book are real-world examples that demonstrate improvements in essential reliability and availability for industrial equipment such as medical magnetic resonance imaging, power systems, traction drives for a search and rescue helicopter, and air conditioning systems. The book presents real case studies of redundant multi-state air conditioning systems for chemical laboratories and covers assessments of reliability and fault tolerance and availability calculations. Conventional and contemporary topics in reliability engineering are discussed, including degradation, networks, and dynamic reliability, resilience, and multi-state systems, all of which are relatively new topics to the field. The book is aimed at engineers and scientists, as well as postgraduate students involved in reliability design, analysis, and experiments and applied probability and statistics.

Collection of technical papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Stochastic Structural Dynamics (SSD03) in Hangzhou, China during May 26-28, 2003. Topics include direct transfer substructure method for random response analysis, generation of bounded stochastic processes, and sample path behavior of Gaussian processes.