Structural Redundancy for Continuous and Discrete Systems

摘要

The purpose of this study is to assess the role of redundancy in marinestructures in the context of reserve and residual strength. The study has included a review of the basic terms and definitions of redundancy and reserve and residual strength in the context of both discrete and continuous structural topologies and has then examined criteria for defining overall stability in such topologies. A series of numerical studies on simple structural forms, representative of both discrete and continuous structures, has been undertaken and used to illustrate the major aspects and problems involved. The study concludes with recommendations for a range of future projects with the goals of examining and quantifying more rigorously the role of redundancy on the reserve and residual strength characteristics of specific ranges of marine structures.