Dynamic response and reliability analysis of non-linear stochastic structures

A new probability density evolution method is proposed for dynamic response analysis and reliability assessment of non-linear stochastic structures. In the method, a completely uncoupled one-dimensional governing g partial differential equation is derived first with regard to evolutionary probability density function (PDF) of the stochastic structural responses. This equation holds for any response or index of the structure. The solution will put out the instantaneous PDF. From the standpoint of the probability transition process. the reliability of the structure is evaluated in a straightforward way by imposing an absorbing boundary condition on the governing PDF equation. However, this does not induce additional computational efforts compared with the dynamic response analysis. The computational algorithm to solve the PDF equation is studied. A deterministic dynamic response analysis procedure is embedded to compute coefficient of the evolutionary, PDF equation, which is then numerically solved by the finite difference method with total variation diminishing scheme. It is found that the proposed hybrid algorithm may deal with non-linear stochastic response analysis problem with high accuracy. Numerical examples are investigated. Parts of the results are illustrated. Some features of the probabilistic information of the response and the reliability are observed and discussed. The comparisons with the Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.