Stochastic Dynamic Analysis of Structures with Spatially Uncertain Material Parameters

This paper investigates the uncertainty quantification in structural dynamic problems with spatially random variation in material and damping parameters. Uncertain and locally varying material parameters are represented as stochastic field by means of the Karhunen–Loève (KL) expansion. The stiffness and damping properties of the structure are considered uncertain. Stochastic finite element of structural modal analysis is performed in which modal responses are represented using the generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) expansion. Knowing the KL expansions of the random parameters, the nonintrusive technique is employed on a set of random collocation points where the structure deterministic finite element model is executed to estimate the unknown coefficients of the polynomial chaos expansions. A numerical case study is presented for a cantilever beam with random Young's modulus involving spatial variation. The proportional damping constants are estimated from the experimental modal analysis. The expected value, standard deviation, and probability distribution of the random eigenfrequencies and the damping ratios are evaluated. The results show high accuracy compared to the Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations with 3000 realizations. It is also demonstrated that the eigenfrequencies and the damping ratios are equally affected from material uncertainties.