Stability Analysis of Structural Systems with Epistemic Uncertainties

Abstract

Safety of structures is ensured by considering the sufficient strength of the structural element and geometric stability of the structure. In structural engineering, the failure of a structural system is characterized by material failure and geometric instability. Material failure occurs when the stresses induced in the structural element reach its yield strength, whereas the instability of the structure is due to the structural geometry and size only, which is known as buckling. It is of utmost significance to perform the stability analysis for the safety of structure. In most of the stability analyses, the structural property and load parameters are considered as certain, which is not the case in practical situations as the load applied to structure is never certain. In the present study, the stability analysis of structure is performed considering the uncertainty in the input parameters. Universal grey number theory and interval analysis are used to perform the stability analysis of the structural system and the results are compared with the combinatorial method (which is estimated to predict the accurate ranges). Results obtained from interval analysis were found to be overestimated because of the violation of the physical law and dependency problem in its arithmetic process whereas the Universal grey number theory showed confirming results with the combinatorial method, as universal grey theory obeys the physical law and does not suffer the dependency problem. In the present study, it is found that the universal grey number theory is computationally efficient when compared with the interval and combinatorial methods. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.