The research project "Development of applicable methods for evaluating the safety of offshore structures" was initiated in August 1984. It is in 1985 supported by Danish Ministry of Energy with D. kr. 380.000. The results obtained will be published in a series of papers. The first paper [1] was published in January 1985 and describes the computer programme package UNZIP by which the reliability of 3-dimensional structures can be evaluated.

The present paper describes progress made during the first four months of 1985. A new program package called MEKBETA is described. By this program fundamental mechanisms can be identified automatically. Also significant mechanisms in plane and space frame and lattice structures are identified automatically. Finally, the reliability of the structural system is estimated on the basis of the identified significant mechanisms. The automatic generation of fundamental mechanisms is based on the method suggested by Watwood [4].