Reliability-Based Design Optimization With Confidence Level for Non-Gaussian Distributions Using Bootstrap Method

Abstract For reliability-based design optimization (RBDO), generating an input statistical model with confidence level has been recently proposed to offset inaccurate estimation of the input statistical model with Gaussian distributions. For this, the confidence intervals for the mean and standard deviation are calculated using Gaussian distributions of the input random variables. However, if the input random variables are non-Gaussian, use of Gaussian distributions of the input variables will provide inaccurate confidence intervals, and thus yield an undesirable confidence level of the reliability-based optimum design meeting the target reliability βt. In this paper, an RBDO method using a bootstrap method, which accurately calculates the confidence intervals for the input parameters for non-Gaussian distributions, is proposed to obtain a desirable confidence level of the output performance for non-Gaussian distributions. The proposed method is examined by testing a numerical example and M1A1 Abrams tank roadarm problem.