probabilistic design criterion for best arrangement of bracing configuration in jtop structures

Fixed marine structures is widely utilized as production or oil recovering platform in the shallow sea, and are also subject to random loading. jacket structures subject to random loading pose difficulties in both analysis and design, with solutions commonly only viably acquired employing a numerical technique. performance of offshore jacket platforms is highly related to configuration of the braces. in this regard, probabilistic scheme is a good option for evaluating jacket structures. in this paper, the performance of resalat jacket structure located in the persian gulf with different kinds of bracing configuration is investigated. we present a new measuring index for optimum arrangement of bracing configuration which is defined as probabilistic design criterion. the latin hypercube sampling (lhs) method, which is a more advanced and appropriate form of the monte carlo simulation technique, is used to investigate different configurations. hereof, probabilistic analysis is performed on different configurations of platform structure using the lhs method. the elastic modulus is employed as the random input variable for probabilistic analysis, and the maximum values of stress and horizontal displacement are selected as the random output variables. also, at the end of the calculations, the optimum configuration can be found. it is demonstrated that the proposed probabilistic optimization algorithm is capable of effectively determining the optimum configuration of jacket platform structures. therefore, an optimum bracing configuration can be useful in evaluating and designing the fixed marine structures.