Design and Construction Error Effects on Structural Reliability

Abstract

A majority of structural failures and associated damage costs are due to errors in planning, design, construction, and utilization, rather than stochastic variability in construction material strengths and structural loads. Recently developed probability‐based load and resistance factor design methods treat uncertainties due to inherent randomness and modeling more rationally than is possible with current design methods, but still do not take errors in design and construction into account. Any meaningful attempts to reduce failure rates will need to deal with this issue. This paper reviews the status of design and construction errors in structural safety studies, summarizes some simple mathematical tools for their analysis, and demonstrates why errors are so difficult to treat in codified design.