The reliability-based design of structural components has been well established based on calibration. However, the reliability-based design of structures as a system remains an issue that has not been addressed adequately. This issue requires the assessment of the system reliability of a complete structure, considering the effects of both the aleatory and the epistemic types of uncertainty. This can be addressed effectively using the PDEM (probability density evolution method) for the effects of the aleatory uncertainty, resulting in the PDF of the critical state of a system. The effects of the epistemic uncertainty may be included as the error of the mean-value of the critical state of the system. For illustration, the method is applied to the minimum life-cycle cost aseismic design of a high-rise building in Mexico City.

基于校准已经很好地建立了基于结构的可靠性设计。但是，基于可靠性的结构作为系统的设计仍然是一个尚未充分解决的问题。这个问题需要评估完整结构的系统可靠性，同时考虑不确定性的不确定性和认知类型的影响。可以使用PDEM（概率密度演化方法）有效地解决不确定性的影响，从而生成系统关键状态的PDF。认知不确定性的影响可以包括为系统临界状态平均值的误差。为了说明起见，该方法被应用于墨西哥城一幢高层建筑的最小生命周期成本抗震设计。