A New Sampling Approach for Response Surface Method Based Reliability Analysis and Its Application

A response surface method based on the all sample point interpolation approach (ASPIA) is proposed to improve the efficiency of reliability computation. ASPIA obtains new sample points through linear interpolation. These new sample points are occasionally extremely dense, thus easily generating an ill-conditioned problem for approximation functions. A mobile most probable failure point strategy is used to solve this problem. The advantage of the proposed method is proven by two numerical examples. With the ASPIA, the approximated process can rapidly approach the actual limit equation with accuracy. Additionally, there are no difficulties in applying the proposed ASPIA to the response surface model with or without cross terms. Solution results for the numerical examples indicate that the use of the response surface function with cross terms increases time cost, but result accuracy cannot be improved significantly. Finally, the proposed method is successfully used to analyze the reliability of the hydraulic cylinder of a forging hydraulic press by combining MATLAB and ANSYS software. The engineering example confirms the practicality of this method.