This paper is concerned with the formulation of time-dependent structural system reliability problems, in particular, when the applied loads are nonstationary stochastic processes and when the limit state functions are not only uncertain but time-variant as well. The theoretically most attractive approach for this type of problem in time-dependent structural reliability analysis is to employ the concept of first passage probability in stochastic process theory. Because the use of the generalised Rice formula poses some difficulty, the outcrossing problem will be formulated herein in another way, i.e. using the original Rice formula directly. This situation allows the multi-dimensional integral to be reduced to a one-dimensional integral. Examples are given to illustrate the proposed approach.

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