Abstract: | A method for evaluating the reliability of ceramic structural members subjected to earthquake-induced vibrations is presented. The method uses the Weibull distribution to represent the probability of failure of the brittle ceramic material and includes the effects of stress concentrations introduced by flaws and the volume of material subjected to stress. The stress concentration introduced by the complex form of insulators and at the mounting interfaces is considered. A numerical example is given to illustrate the application of the method. |