Stochastic collocation-based finite element of structural nonlinear dynamics with application in composite structures

Department of Mechnaical Engineering, Technical University of Munich, 85748 Garching, Germany

^a e-mail: k.sepahvand@tum.de

Abstract

Stochastic analysis of structures having nonlinearity by means of sampling methods leads to expensive cost in term of computational time. In contrast, non-sampling methods based on the spectral representation of uncertainty are very efficient with comparable accurate results. In this pa- per, the application of spectral methods to nonlinear dynamics of structures with random parameters is investigated. The impact of the parameter randomness on structural responses has been consid- ered. To this end, uncertain parameters and the structure responses are represented using the gPC expansions with unknown deterministic coefficients and random orthogonal polynomial basis. The deterministic finite element model of the structure is used as black-box and it is executed on a set of random collocation points. As the sample structure responses are estimated, a nonlinear optimization process is employed to calculate the unknown coefficients. The method has this main advantage that can be used for complicated nonlinear structural dynamic problems for which the deterministic FEM model has been already developed. Furthermore, it is very time efficient in comparison with sampling methods, as MC simulations. The application of the method is applied to the nonlinear transient analysis of composite beam structures including uncertain quadratic random damping. The results show that the proposed method can capture the large range of uncertainty in input parameters as well as in structural dynamic responses while it is too time-efficient.