FERUM

ferum.gifFERUM 4.1 (Finite Element Reliability Using Matlab) is a general purpose structural reliability code. This open-source Matlab® toolbox represents an updated version of FERUM 3.1, initially developed by researchers at UC Berkeley.

New: FERUM 4.1 now available ( July 1, 2010 )

The development of FERUM (Finite Element Reliability Using Matlab®) as an open-source Matlab® toolbox was initiated in 1999 under Armen Der Kiureghian’s leadership at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). This general-purpose structural reliability code was developed and maintained by Terje Haukaas until 2003, with the contributions of many researchers at UCB. The latest available version of this code is FERUM 3.1, available at UCB website.

FERUM 4.1 still consists of an open-source Matlab® toolbox, featuring various stochastic methods. The main objective of FERUM is to provide students with a tool which is immediately comprehensible and easy to use, and researchers with a tool which is very accessible, and which they can develop for research purposes. The scripting language of Matlab® is perfect for such objectives, since it allows users to give commands in a very flexible way, either in an interactive mode or in a batch mode through input files.
The main concepts of FERUM are preserved. In addition to most of the methods available in its previous version (FORM, SORM, crude Monte Carlo, Importance Sampling), FERUM now offers new features such as simulation-based techniques (Directional Simulation, Subset Simulation), Global Sensitivity Analysis based on Sobol’s indices,  Reliability-Based Design Optimization. Subset Simulation and global Sensitivity Analysis can be carried out either using the original physical model or a Support Vector Machine surrogate, if the physical model is really computationally demanding. Beyond the new methods implemented in this code, its architecture has been modified to some extent. Distributed computing is now available, either virtually through vectorized calculations in Matlab or for real with multi-processor computers, provided that a suitable interface is developed.

You are most welcome to download the program (see the Download menu) under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

It should be emphasized that this program is under constant developments like version 3.1. Feel free to send comments/questions, report bugs/errors and submit new feature proposals to bourinet[a]sigma-clermont.fr. They will certainly influence new versions of FERUM. A summary of new features and/or corrections brought to FERUM with respect to the previous release can be found in the Release Summary menu.

Acknowledgments of contributing researchers:

  • Subset Simulation: François Deheeger, Vincent Dubourg
  • ²SMART: François Deheeger
  • Global Sensitivity Analysis based on Sobol’ indices: Cécile Mattrand
  • RBDO-N2LA: Vincent Dubourg
  • Interface of FERUM with external codes: mainly Lukáš Nešpůrek but others too
  • All contributors to former version of FERUM (version 3.1)
  • Coordinator: Jean-Marc Bourinet

A special thanks also to Maurice Lemaire, Bruno Sudret and PHIMECA researchers and engineers, for all the fruitful discussions about industrial problems and/or tricky stochastic problems.

FERUM 4.0 reference paper:

  • Bourinet, J.-M., Mattrand, C., Dubourg, V., 2009. A review of recent features and improvements added to FERUM software. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability (ICOSSAR’09), Osaka, Japan [download][BibTeX-entry]