This proceedings volume contains 38 papers presented at the 4th Working
Conference on "Rel- iability- and Optimization of Structural Systems",
held at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, September 11- 13,
1991. The Working Conference was organised by the IFIP (Interna- tional
Federation for Information Processing) Working Group 7.5 of Technical
Committee 7 and was the fourth in a series, following similar
conferences held at the University of Aalborg, Den- mark, May 1987, at
the Imperial College, London, UK, September 1988 and at the University
of California, Berkeley, California, USA, March 1990. The Working
Conference was attended by 54 participants from 16 countries. The
objectives of Working Group 7.5 are: - to promote modern structural
systems optimization and reliability theory, - to advance international
cooperation in the field of structural system optimization and
reliability theory, - to stimulate research, development and application
of structural system optimization and reli- ability theory, - to further
the dissemination and exchange of information on reliability and
optimization of structural systems - to encourage education in
structural system optimization and reliability theory. At present the
members of the Working Group are: A. H.-S. Ang, U.S.A. M. Grimmelt, FRG
G. A ugwti, Italy N. C. Lind, Canada M. J. Baker, UK H. O. Mad&en,
Denmark P. Bjerager, Norway R. E. Melcher, Australia C. A. Cornell,
U.S.A. F. Mo e, U.S.A.