A brief background to the development of the rock engineering design process is given, showing that since the development of the science of mathematics, deterministic methods have been used to perform various calculations. The variability of rock properties and support characteristics have always been known. However, they were not explicitly used in design but compensated for by the use of a safety factor, i.e. making a design more stringent than required by the calculations. The problem with this procedure is that the effect of increasing a safety factor on the overall stability of the design cannot be known because the range of variability is not incorporated in the design. The only way to overcome this problem is to make use of the science of probability. In doing that, the ranges of rock qualities are explicitly included in the design and the probability of failure is exposed. Examples of common rock engineering calculations in mining are provided, showing that the Probabilistic designs are not difficult or time consuming to perform and yield much more useful outcomes than merely using a safety factor.

Un-trenched submarine pipelines will experience the wave and current loads during their design lifetime which potentially tend to destabilize the pipeline both horizontally and vertically. These forces are resisted by the interaction of the pipe with the surrounding soil. Due to the uncertainties involved in the waves, currents and soil conditions, there will be a complex interaction between the wave/current, pipeline and seabed that needs to be properly accounted for. The design of submarine pipelines against excessive displacements due to hydrodynamic loads (DNV-RP-F109) is defined as a Serviceability Limit State (SLS) with the target safety levels as given in DNVOS-F101 (2013). In this paper, uncertainties associated with the on-bottom stability design of submarine pipelines are investigated. Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS) are performed as the basis for the Probabilistic assessment of the lateral stability of the pipeline located on the seabed. Application of the method is illustrated through case studies varying several design parameters to illustrate the importance of each design parameter for exceeding a given threshold of the SLS criterion. Uncertainties in the significant wave height and spectral peak period are found to be important parameters in describing the Utilization Ratio (UR) distribution. Type of the soil has also an impact on the distribution of UR, i.e. how the passive soil resistance in the pipe-soil interaction model is accounted for. Therefore, the definition of characteristic values of both loads and resistance variables are important for the UR.

To ensure efficient performance of irrigation canals, the losses from the canals need to be minimized. In this paper a modified formulation is presented to solve the optimization model for the design of different canal geometries for minimum seepage loss, in meta-heuristic environment. The complex non-linear and non-convex optimization model for canal design is solved using a Probabilistic search algorithm namely Probabilistic Global Search Lausanne (PGSL). The solutions are found to be competitive to those reported in literature while applied for different example problems. To suit for real field applications, three site specific constraints are considered and the sensitivity of solutions for the most popular trapezoidal canals is investigated. The study shows the potential of the proposed approach to perform optimal design of irrigation canals for minimum seepage loss.

Failure of the quay walls due to earthquakes results in severe economic loss. Because of hazards threatening such inexpensive nodes of national and international transportation networks, seismic design of quay walls is still an evolving topic in marine structural engineering. This study investigates the sensitivity of the gravity-type quay wall stability respect to uncertain soil and seismic properties using ultimate limit-sate pseudo-static design process. Stability is defined in terms of safety factor against sliding (sfs), overturning (sfo) and exceeding bearing capacity (sfb). In order to assess the forces exerting on quay walls, to be more accurate, pore water pressure ratio, horizontal and vertical inertia forces, fluctuating and non-fluctuating components of hydraulic and soil pressure were considered. It was found that the increase of water depth in front of the quay, vertical and horizontal seismic coefficients, and pore water pressure ratio play important roles in reduction of all mentioned safety factors. Increase of specific weight of the rubble mound, backfill and foundation soil, friction angle of wall-foundation/seabed interface and wall back-face/backfill interface and friction angle of backfill soil, lead safety factors to magnify. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis was also performed using the tornado diagrams. Results of this study could give designers insights into the importance of uncertain soil and seismic factors, in order to choose geometry of the design in a way that its analysis and assessment is less relied on severely uncertain parameters and to introduce more reliable and economic quay walls.

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.

In this study, a Probabilistic method was proposed to determine the stable riprap as a scour control measure downstream of a stilling basin, using the Monte Carlo Simulation Technique. The Kan diversion dam in Iran was selected as a case study, and various uncertainties in the model, including hydraulic parameters for different design flood events, were taken into account during the analysis. Moreover, the relationship between the probability of failure, structure lifespan, and riprap sizing was also investigated. The results indicated that the estimates for riprap data followed a normal distribution. By utilizing the characteristics of this distribution, such as the mean and coefficient of variation, the stable riprap sizes were calculated based on the desired probability of failure and the structure lifespan. For instance, when considering a 5% probability of failure, the riprap size was determined to be 0.203 m for a 50-year design flood. Similarly, for larger floods, such as a 200-year design flood, the riprap size needed to be increased by 65%. Furthermore, as the structure lifespan increased from 25 years to 200 years, the riprap stone size saw an approximate 25% increase for a 200-year design flood.

In this paper the methodology of reliability analysis in aerial structures has been developed. This methodology has been carried out on a special specimen. The selected specimen is a cylinder strut of the landing gear system of a training airplane. This specimen is one of the most important parts of the landing gear system. Because of its special shape, no analytical solution exists for calculating the stress in it. Therefore, by means of the surface response method and Box-Behnken tables, a deterministic equation for calculating the stresses in critical points of the specimen has been produced. So, in order to obtain the reliability of this part via Probabilistic method, Monte Carlo simulation has been used. The applied loads have been modeled with one pressure, one bending moment and one concentrated force.These loads have been assumed to be independent random variables. Also, the probability distribution function of the pressure and the bending moment have been assumed to be normal and the probability distribution function of the concentrated force has been assumed to be lognormal. The dimensions of the specimen are deterministic and the mechanical properties of the material are a normal distribution with standard deviation equal to 10 percent of its mean value. The results showed that the minimum reliability of this specimen is 99.9997 percent. So, the design of the cylinder strut is safe for aerial applications from the point of reliability.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is one of the most successful techniques of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and is mostly in use for the treatment of infertility with male factors. In this method, before injecting sperm into the intracytoplasmic of the oocyte, cumulus cells around the oocyte must be stripped to facilitate the injection process. To achieve this, both enzymatic and mechanical methods are used in embryological laboratories for denudation, which has major deficiencies, including the possibility of damaging the oocyte prior to the injection process. In this research, a microfluidic-based device is introduced for the separation of cumulus cells around the oocyte with minimum manual operations. The results prove high efficiency, and non-destructive denudation of the oocyte with the reduced amount of culture medium leads to the low-cost preparation process of oocytes. The process can also be integrated with ICSI chips under development and will be reported shortly.