Probabilistic safety assessments of truss structures designed by AISC 360-16 and EC 3

Abstract

In globalization, the selection of the specifications for design practices depends on the investment agency. For example, steel truss structures can be designed using various codes, such as AISC 360-16 or EC 3. Although most specifications have recently been written in limit state design, which codes result in reasonable design solutions are rarely investigated. This work carried out reliability analyses to evaluate the probabilistic safety levels of the solutions designed by the abovementioned codes. Following the two design codes, two truss structures are first designed to satisfy the strength limit states. Various ratios of live load to dead load are also adopted for designing tension and compression members of the trusses. Afterward, Monte Carlo simulations are implemented to assess the failure probability of each design solution. Because the codes are constructed by the limit state formats, and the factors specified in the codes are established based on reliability frameworks, consistency and uniformity of the design solutions are investigated. It is revealed that the trusses designed with AISC 360-16 result in higher probabilistic safety levels compared with those using EC 3. However, the failure probability for tension and compression bars is more consistently obtained for those designed by EC 3. Moreover, the reliability indexes are lower than those for compression members, regardless of the code used.