Abstract
Reliability-based design approaches are needed for cylindrical shell structure whose design and operational experiences are few and which are subjected to external loads of random loads. In designing new type of structure, it is very difficult to evaluate the safety factors due to lack of previous design data and operational experience. To solve the above mentioned problem, much attention is being focussed on rational reliability based design approaches. This paper deals with weight-optional reliability-based design of cylindrical shell structure subjected to structural reliability constraints taking into account of the effect of local buckling and interactive behavior between local and global buckling. Present mentioned is compared with the exiting optional design method based only on safety factors. Numerical simulation reveals that the present method leads to lighter structure (4% reduction in weight compared to the existing optimal design) with the same reliability index. For larger structures with more number of structural members and possible failure modes, the present W0RBD procedure will be an efficient tool in designing cost-effective rationalized economic design.