Description
Content: The reliability, risk, and resilience of engineered systems are becoming ever more critical considerations as the climate changes, human population grows, and our societies become more urbanised. It is therefore crucially important that civil engineers are equipped with the appropriate tools necessary to quantify and maximise reliability, minimise risk, and enhance structural and infrastructural resilience as they work to shape the urban landscape in the coming years and decades. “Reliability, Risk and Resilience Engineering” addresses this specific challenge. The module provides a rigorous background on the concepts of reliability, risk, and resilience in the context of engineered systems. Real-life engineering examples are leveraged to explore the utility of reliability, risk and resilience analyses. Fundamental mathematical/statistical tools that underpin the three concepts are also covered.
Teaching delivery: This module is taught in 10 weekly one- to two-hour lectures.
Indicative Topics: Probability and statistics; introduction to reliability; system reliability; case study applications of reliability theory; case studies of disaster risk management; introduction to risk; introduction to resilience; network analysis; case study applications of system resilience. (Indicative lecture topics – based on module content in 2023/24, subject to possible changes).
Module Aims and/or Objectives: Upon successful completion of this module, you can expect to be able to:
- Apply common probability models and statistical analysis techniques used in Civil Engineering.
- Recognize and know how to assess the growing incertitude of engineered systems which must deal with the Climate Emergency amongst other safety, security and risk issues. This will involve learning how to conduct basic portfolio-level regional catastrophe risk assessments.
- Distinguish between reliability, resilience, robustness and other aspects of engineered systems that must be strengthened in order to reduce the risk of interruptions to engineering solutions. This will involve learning how:
- To compute estimates of failure probabilities for both individual components and systems;
- To use network analysis tools to determine system-level resilience
Furthermore, this module will provide you with technical skills required for MSc dissertations that use analytical methods or modelling techniques to investigate engineering problems
Recommended readings:
- Akiyama, M. (2020). Toward life-cycle reliability-, risk- and resilience-based design and assessment of bridges and bridge networks under independent and interacting hazards: emphasis on earthquake, tsunami and corrosion.Structure and Infrastructure Engineering : Maintenance, Management, Life-Cycle Design and Performance.,16(1), 26–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2019.1604770
- Zio, E. (2016). Challenges in the vulnerability and risk analysis of critical infrastructures.Reliability Engineering & System Safety,152, 137–150.
- Kemp, R. J. (2016). Living without electricity: one city's experience of coping with loss of power. Royal Academy of Engineering. Available at: https://raeng.org.uk/media/xrrigg0m/raeng-living-without-electricity.pdf
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.