This book provides answers to the following problems: how to identify the most probable critical failures; how to describe and use data-concerning materials that are either heterogeneous, time-variant, or space-variant; how to quantify the reliability and lifetime of a system; how to use feedback information to actualize reliability results; and how to optimize an inspection politic or a maintenance strategy. Numerous authors from public research centers and firms propose a synthesis of methods, both new and well-known, and offer numerous examples concerning dams, geotechnical study, and structures from nuclear and civil engineering.

Julien Baroth is a professor at the?IUT Laboratoire of Grenoble University in?France.

Denys Breysse is a professor?in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (GCE) at Bordeaux 1 University's Institute of Mechanics and Engineering (I2M) in France.

D. Franck Schoefs is a professor at the Institute for Research in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM)?of Nantes University in France.