An Efficient Re-Analysis Methodology for Probabilistic Vibration of Large-Scale Structures

Author(s):  
Geng Zhang ◽  
Efstratios Nikolaidis ◽  
Zissimos P. Mourelatos

It is challenging to perform probabilistic analysis and design of large-scale structures because it requires repeated finite-element analyses of large models and each analysis is expensive. This paper presents a methodology for probabilistic analysis and reliability-based design optimization of large-scale structures that consists of two re-analysis methods; one for estimating the deterministic vibratory response and another for estimating the probability of the response exceeding a certain level. Deterministic re-analysis can analyze efficiently large-scale finite element models consisting of tens or hundreds of thousand degrees of freedom and large numbers of design variables that vary in a wide range. Probabilistic re-analysis calculates very efficiently the system reliability for different probability distributions of the design variables by performing a single Monte Carlo simulation. The methodology is demonstrated on probabilistic vibration analysis and a reliability-based design optimization of a realistic vehicle model. It is shown that computational cost of the proposed reanalysis method for a single reliability analysis is about 1/20th of the cost of the same analysis using NASTRAN. Moreover, the probabilistic re-analysis approach enables a designer to perform reliability-based design optimization of the vehicle at a cost almost equal to that of a single reliability analysis. Without using the probabilistic re-analysis approach, it would be impractical to perform reliability-based design optimization of the vehicle.

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Geng Zhang ◽  
Efstratios Nikolaidis ◽  
Zissimos P. Mourelatos

Probabilistic analysis and design of large-scale structures requires repeated finite-element analyses of large models, and each analysis is expensive. This paper presents a methodology for probabilistic analysis and reliability-based design optimization of large-scale structures that consists of two re-analysis methods, one for estimating the deterministic vibratory response and another for estimating the probability of the response exceeding a certain level. The deterministic re-analysis method can analyze efficiently large-scale finite-element models consisting of tens or hundreds of thousand degrees of freedom and design variables that vary in a wide range. The probabilistic re-analysis method calculates very efficiently the system reliability for different probability distributions of the random variables by performing a single Monte Carlo simulation of one design. The methodology is demonstrated on probabilistic vibration analysis and reliability-based design optimization of a realistic vehicle model. It is shown that the computational cost of the proposed re-analysis method for a single reliability analysis is about 1/20 of the cost of the same analysis using MSC/NASTRAN. Moreover, the probabilistic re-analysis approach enables a designer to perform reliability-based design optimization of the vehicle at a cost almost equal to that of a single reliability analysis. Without using the probabilistic re-analysis approach, it would be impractical to perform reliability-based design optimization of the vehicle.


2005 ◽  
Vol 297-300 ◽  
pp. 1882-1887
Author(s):  
Tae Hee Lee ◽  
Jung Hun Yoo

In practical design applications, most design variables such as thickness, diameter and material properties are not deterministic but stochastic numbers that can be represented by their mean values with variances because of various uncertainties. When the uncertainties related with design variables and manufacturing process are considered in engineering design, the specified reliability of the design can be achieved by using the so-called reliability based design optimization. Reliability based design optimization takes into account the uncertainties in the design in order to meet the user requirement of the specified reliability while seeking optimal solution. Reliability based design optimization of a real system becomes now an emerging technique to achieve reliability, robustness and safety of the design. It is, however, well known that reliability based design optimization can often have so multiple local optima that it cannot converge into the specified reliability. To overcome this difficulty, barrier function approach in reliability based design optimization is proposed in this research and feasible solution with specified reliability index is always provided if a feasible solution is available. To illustrate the proposed formulation, reliability based design optimization of a bracket design is performed. Advanced mean value method and first order reliability method are employed for reliability analysis and their optimization results are compared with reliability index approach based on the accuracy and efficiency.


Author(s):  
Heeralal Gargama ◽  
Sanjay K Chaturvedi ◽  
Awalendra K Thakur

The conventional approaches for electromagnetic shielding structures’ design, lack the incorporation of uncertainty in the design variables/parameters. In this paper, a reliability-based design optimization approach for designing electromagnetic shielding structure is proposed. The uncertainties/variability in the design variables/parameters are dealt with using the probabilistic sufficiency factor, which is a factor of safety relative to a target probability of failure. Estimation of probabilistic sufficiency factor requires performance function evaluation at every design point, which is extremely computationally intensive. The computational burden is reduced greatly by evaluating design responses only at the selected design points from the whole design space and employing artificial neural networks to approximate probabilistic sufficiency factor as a function of design variables. Subsequently, the trained artificial neural networks are used for the probabilistic sufficiency factor evaluation in the reliability-based design optimization, where optimization part is processed with the real-coded genetic algorithm. The proposed reliability-based design optimization approach is applied to design a three-layered shielding structure for a shielding effectiveness requirement of ∼40 dB, used in many industrial/commercial applications, and for ∼80 dB used in the military applications.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 168781401879333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiliang Huang ◽  
Tongguang Yang ◽  
Fangyi Li

Conventional decoupling approaches usually employ first-order reliability method to deal with probabilistic constraints in a reliability-based design optimization problem. In first-order reliability method, constraint functions are transformed into a standard normal space. Extra non-linearity introduced by the non-normal-to-normal transformation may increase the error in reliability analysis and then result in the reliability-based design optimization analysis with insufficient accuracy. In this article, a decoupling approach is proposed to provide an alternative tool for the reliability-based design optimization problems. To improve accuracy, the reliability analysis is performed by first-order asymptotic integration method without any extra non-linearity transformation. To achieve high efficiency, an approximate technique of reliability analysis is given to avoid calculating time-consuming performance function. Two numerical examples and an application of practical laptop structural design are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Po Ting Lin ◽  
Hae Chang Gea ◽  
Yogesh Jaluria

Reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) problems have been intensively studied for many decades. Since Hasofer and Lind [1974, “Exact and Invariant Second-Moment Code Format,” J. Engrg. Mech. Div., 100(EM1), pp. 111–121] defined a measure of the second-moment reliability index, many RBDO methods utilizing the concept of reliability index have been introduced as the reliability index approach (RIA). In the RIA, reliability analysis problems are formulated to find the reliability indices for each performance constraint and the solutions are used to evaluate the failure probability. However, the traditional RIA suffers from inefficiency and convergence problems. In this paper, we revisited the definition of the reliability index and revealed the convergence problem in the traditional RIA. Furthermore, a new definition of the reliability index is proposed to correct this problem and a modified reliability index approach is developed based on this definition. The strategies to solve RBDO problems with non-normally distributed design variables by the modified RIA are also investigated. Numerical examples using both the traditional and modified RIAs are compared and discussed.


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