Title: Structural integrity: hazard, vulnerability and risk

Authors: Jitendra Agarwal, David I. Blockley

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Queens Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK. ' Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Queens Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK

Abstract: We all have to get better at managing risk. Risk combines vulnerability and chance of hazard. The core idea of hazard is potential for danger. Vulnerability captures the concept of susceptibility to damage but it is more than that. It involves characteristics of the form of the system as well as characteristics of structural response to hazards including material defects, loading actions and accidental damage. A new method of finding failure scenarios as series of damage events is based on a systems approach to clustering the structure into simple sub-structures and searching for failure scenarios with high vulnerability index.

Keywords: safety; uncertainty; vulnerability; structural integrity: hazards; risk management; materials defects; loading; accidental damage; failure scenarios.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSI.2007.013867

International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity, 2007 Vol.1 No.1/2/3, pp.117 - 127

Published online: 31 May 2007 *

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