A novel deterministic sampling approach for the reliability analysis of high-dimensional structures

Abstract

Overcoming the “curse of dimensionality” in high-dimensional reliability analysis is still an enduring challenge. This paper proposes an innovative deterministic sampling method designed to overcome this challenge. The approach starts with a two-dimensional uniform point set, generated using the good lattice point method. This set is then refined through the cutting method to produce a specific number of points. A novel generating vector is computed based on this method, enabling the generation of the targeted high-dimensional point set through a strategic dimension-by-dimension mapping. Notably, this method eliminates the need for complex congruence computation and primitive root optimization, enhancing its efficiency for high-dimensional sampling. The resulting point set is deterministic and uniform, greatly reducing variability in reliability analysis. Then, the proposed approach is integrated into the fractional exponential moment-based maximum entropy method with the Box–Cox transform. This integration efficiently recovers the probability distribution for the limit state function (LSF) with high-dimensional inputs, enabling precise assessment of the failure probability. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated through three high-dimensional numerical examples, involving both explicit and implicit LSFs, highlighting its applicability for high-dimensional reliability analysis of structures.