STOCHASTIC DYNAMIC FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF A NONUNIFORM BEAM

In this paper, the statistical dynamic responses of a nonuniform beam with stochastic Young's modulus of elasticity are obtained by using the perturbation technique in conjunction with the finite element method. The proposed method produces the expectation, variance and autocorrelation function of the deflection, strain and stress that are quite useful in estimating the structural safety and reliability. Some statistical responses obtained by the perturbation method are checked by the Monte Carlo simulation, also, the reliability analysis of the structure is performed based on certain failure criteria of the structure.