Release Summary

Here is a summary of new features and/or corrections brought to FERUM, w.r.t. previous releases.

FERUM 4.1 (July 1, 2010) vs. 4.0 (September 9, 2009) 

  • A new method is offered to assess small failure probabilities, based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) surrogates. This method referred as ²SMART consists in essence in building a SVM classifier for each Subset Simulation-like yi-threshold intermediate limit-state.
  • Global Sensitivity Analysis based on Sobol’ indices now works with models characterized by a vectorial output. The limit-state function may either return a scalar value if gfundata(lsf).ng field is set to 1 in the input file (default value) or a vector of values if gfundata(lsf).ng is set to a value strictly greater than 1. The Global Sensitivity Analysis works either with the physical model itself or SVR surrogates. If the limit-state function has a vectorial output, a SVR surrogate is built for each component of this vectorial output.
  • FORM with search for multiple design points can now be run in silent mode (analysisopt.echo_flag set to 0).
  • All SVM m-functions are gathered in the svm subdirectory (including the Spider toolbox). They may be useful either in a ²SMART analysis or in a SVR-based Global Sensitivity analysis.
  • A slightly modified version of twister.cpp file is given for 64-bit computational platforms. It prevents crashes which occur when the internal state of the generator needs to be saved by issuing the command >> S = twister(’state’).