The History of the Limit State Design Method

This paper analyzes the 70-year history of development of the limit state design method (LSDM) focusing on the fundamentals of the design codes based on this method and considers proposals for improving the LSDM and its justification.  It was also noted that the reaction of the system in any of its fixed states is not always sufficient to assess the reliability of the system, and therefore it is necessary to analyze the rate of loss of resistance of load-bearing structures. However, probabilistic considerations were not enough due to the lack of reliable statistical data in the area of extreme sections of the distribution curves and a number of other circumstances (features of control procedures, different behavior of the material in the structure and in the samples, etc.). This paper analyzes some fundamental issues that should be solved when developing the method for the nonlinear analysis.