Reliability-based optimisation for offshore structures using saddlepoint approximation

Offshore structures have a long service life and involve high cost. However, the working environment of offshore structures is harsh. When an accident occurs, it causes an adverse social impact and economic loss. Therefore, in the design process of offshore structures, in order to enhance their safety, this is an important problem that needs attention. Reliability-based design and optimisation (RBDO) using saddlepoint approximation (SA) is a powerful method to enhance the reliability of offshore structures. The SA utilises a cumulant generating function and saddlepoint to approximately express the probability density function and cumulative distribution function of a limit-state function. To further improve the accuracy of reliability evaluation in RBDO with SA, in this study, a mean-value second-order SA (MVSOSA) is introduced. A RBDO with MVSOSA strategy is proposed for the design problem of a wellhead platform. An engineering case study illustrates the application of the proposed method.