Uncertain Frequency Responses of Clamp-Pipeline Systems Using an Interval-Based Method

Due to manufacturing errors and material deteriorations in the metal rubber of clamps, the clamp stiffness of the pipeline is uncertain. This paper presents a non-intrusive multi-dimensional Chebyshev polynomial approximation method (M-CPAM) to evaluate uncertain characteristics of the frequency response function (FRF) of the clamp-pipeline system (CPS), where the clamp stiffness parameters are taken as unknown but bounded interval variables. Firstly, a finite element model of the clamp-pipeline system is established. Secondly, the variance-based global sensitivity analysis is implemented to determine significant stiffness parameters. Then, the uncertain intervals of the clamp stiffness are measured by experiments and the dispersion of the clamp stiffness is described. Finally, based on the measured stiffness interval, the uncertain frequency responses of the CPS under different tightening torques are analyzed by the proposed M-CPAM, and the effectiveness of simulation results is verified by experiments. Compared with the results obtained from the Monte Carlo simulation, the experimental measurements, and the polynomial chaos expansion, the proposed M-CPAM provides a more accurate, time-saving and practical method for solving the uncertain frequency responses of the CPS with interval stiffness variables. The results show that the clamp stiffness has great dispersion under the same tightening torque. A frequency shift phenomenon will be observed when the clamp stiffness is uncertain. Moreover, the dispersion of the frequency response of the CPS tends to be concentrated with the increase of the tightening torques.