Limit State Design-

Statistical Concepts
If an event occurs in m occasions in a total of n
occasions.
Probability of an event to happen =
Probability of an event not to occur =

n
m
(

n
m
1
Probability
Frequency Distribution
Results of 100 cylinder splitting tensile tests on concrete are given
in Table1.
Numbers in Table are Characteristic Values of Variate
Characteristic values can be studied more conveniently if they are
rearranged in the ascending order of magnitude
Characteristic values are divided into class intervals
No. of values falling in each interval represents the frequency in
that interval.
Frequency Distribution
Frequency distribution (of tensile strengths) is Histogram.
The principle of histogram is that the area (not the
ordinate) of each rectangle represents the proportion of
observations falling in that intervals
I f the number of observations increased and the class
interval reduced, histogram resembles a smooth curve
I f the number of observations is infinite, histogram becomes
a smooth curve known as Normal Distribution Curve
Characteristics of Distribution
Mean =

If numbers and frequencies
respectively are given, mean may be calculated as


n n
x x x x
x
i n

=
+ + +
=
x
3 2 1
i
x x x
2 1
,
i
f f f , ,
2 1
n
x f
f f f
x f x f x f
x
i i
i
i i

=
+ + +
+ + +
=
2 1
2 2 1 1
Standard Deviation
Standard deviation=
=Deviation of a number from the mean.
= root mean square of the deviation from the mean.
COV = Ratio of standard deviation to mean, as percentage.
If the values of the individual samples are known along with
their frequency, the standard deviation can be estimated by

( )
n
x x
2

= o
( ) x x
( )
n
x x

2
( )
n
x x f
i i

=
2
o
Normal Distribution
Normal Distribution Curve
Normal distribution curve is defined by


= Standard Deviation
e = Exponential = 2.71828 (base of the natural logo)
= Mean of the variable.
Let x be expressed in terms of another variable z as below


z is the deviation from the mean expressed in multiple of the
standard deviation. The normal distribution form is

( )

=
2
2
2
1
exp
2
1
o
t o
x x
y

o
x
o
x x
z

=
| | o z x x + =
)
`

=
2
2
1
exp
2
1
z y
t o