J. M. NICHOLS (1), A. K. TOMOR (2) and A. BENEDETTI (3)

(1) Associate Professor, Department of Construction Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, Brazos County, 77843 and USA, jm-nichols@tamu.edu (2) Senior Lecturer, Geography and Environmental Management, University of the West of England (Bristol) Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, UK, Adrienn.Tomor@uwe.ac (3) Professor, DICAM, University of Bologna Bologna, Italy, Andrea.Benedetti@unibo.it

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to outline the start of the development of a time-dependent Dynamic Structural Reliability Model for civil engineering structures. The issue of the existing extent of information for the different elements of the model is addressed together with the research required to assure a uniform reliability level for structures. A uniform reliability level provides an ethical sound method of assessment of the relative safety of the structure. Structural reliability analysis is a long-term research problem that has been aided by the development of sensitive accelerometers, capable of recording thermal vibration of structures. Changes in the natural vibration frequencies over time can be used to identify changes in the structural reliability over time based on real-time behaviour.

KEYWORDS: structural, reliability, dynamic, accelerometer, time dependent