Title: Human errors and structural failure probability

Authors: Dan M. Frangopol

Addresses: Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0428, USA

Abstract: Predicting the influence of human errors on structural failure probability is the topic of this paper. There are two principal reasons for needing this information. First, if errors are present after the design of a structure is completed, as is generally the case, this will provide the engineer with a measure of what effect such errors will have on the structural safety. Second, this information is directly useful in the optimisation of quality assurance expenditures, which can effectively be used for controlling the probability of structural failure due to errors. Simplified probabilistic models are developed to integrate human errors into structural risk assessment. Numerical examples illustrate the sensitivity of structural safety to errors.

Keywords: human error; risk assessment modelling; probabilistic models; structural failure; structural risk assessment; quality assurance; structural safety; failure probability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.1988.036689

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 1988 Vol.3 No.1, pp.1 - 10

Published online: 06 Nov 2010 *

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