Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) is a useful tool for computation of probability of failure in reliability analysis. However, the large number of samples, often required for acceptable accuracy, makes it time-consuming. Importance sampling is a method on the basis of MCS which has been proposed to reduce the computational time of MCS. In this paper, a new adaptive importance sampling-based algorith...

This paper aims to study the steady-state response of the practical sliding mode controlled system (SMC). The nonlinearity of the switching term is approximately characterized by using its equivalent describing function. The parasitic dynamics is modeled as a first order lag transfer function, and the possible transport delay is particularly considered. Subsequently, the frequency domain method...

A Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO) framework is presented that accounts for stochastic variations in structural parameters and operating conditions. The reliability index calculation is itself an iterative process, potentially employing an optimization technique to find the shortest distance from the origin to the limit-state boundary in a standard normal space. Monte Carlo simulati...

Failure of the quay walls due to earthquakes results in severe economic loss. Because of hazards threatening such inexpensive nodes of national and international transportation networks, seismic design of quay walls is still an evolving topic in marine structural engineering. This study investigates the sensitivity of the gravity-type quay wall stability respect to uncertain soil and seismic pr...

|The nonlinear surface impedance of a thin superconducting strip carrying a microwave current was calculated numerically from rst principles based upon ux penetration due to a current-induced critical state. Our results approaches the analytical results in the appropriate limit. The technique is useful for design of passive superconducting microwave circuits. Keywords| Critical state, Hysteresi...

The nonlinear surface impedance of a thin superconducting strip carrying a microwave current has been calculated numerically from first principles based upon flux penetration due to a current-induced critical state. The calculations approach analytic results in the appropriate limit. The technique is useful for design of passive superconducting microwave circuits. Keywords— Critical state, Hyst...

In a variety of fields, in particular those involving imaging and optics, we often measure signals whose phase is missing or has been irremediably distorted. Phase retrieval attempts the recovery of the phase information of a signal from the magnitude of its Fourier transform to enable the reconstruction of the original signal. A fundamental question then is: “Under which conditions can we uniq...

This paper presents an alarm system based on temporal episodes. A temporal episode is semi qualitative information that describes the signal trend. The system developed is a limit alarm system based on episodes extracted on line. It is able to recognize specific signal behaviours such as probe disconnection or steady state near the alarm limit threshold. The system is implemented to run on line...