ENGINEERING PROBABILISTIC ANALYSIS USING MODEL REDUCTION AND AUGMENTED RADIAL BASIS FUNCTIONS

Probabilistic analysis of practical engineering problems has long been based on traditional sampling-based approaches, such as Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS) and gradient-based first-order and second-order methods. Since the finite element (FE) or other numerical methods are required to evaluate engineering system responses, such as forces or displacements, it is not efficient to directly integrate FE and sampling-based analysis approaches. Over the years, various approximate methods have been developed and applied to the reliability analysis of engineering problems. In this study, an efficient model reduction technique based on high-dimensional model reduction (HDMR) method has been developed using augmented radial basis functions (RBFs). The basic idea is to use augmented RBFs to construct HDMR component functions. The first-order HDMR model only requires sample points along each variable axis. The HDMR model, once created and used to explicitly express a performance function, is further combined with MCS to perform probabilistic calculations. As test problems, a mathematical problem and a 10-bar truss example are studied using the proposed reliability analysis approach. The proposed method works well, and accurate reliability analysis results are found with a small number of original performance function evaluations, i.e., FE simulations.