Hybrid reliability analysis for energy-absorbing composite structures based on evidence theory

Abstract

It is important to investigate the uncertain modeling and reliability analysis for the crashworthiness capacity of composite energy-absorbing structures (CEAS) in which there are random and epistemic uncertainty. A probability-evidence theory hybrid uncertainty model and a corresponding efficient reliability analysis method for the crashworthiness capacity of CEAS are presented in this paper. In this method, evidence theory is introduced to address the difficulties in the epistemic uncertain modeling due to the lack of experimental samples, which expand greatly the applicability of reliability analysis technology in the crashworthiness capacity of CEAS research. Moreover, the probability theory is applied to address the random uncertainty. Based on the traditional equivalence normalization method, a probability-evidence theory hybrid reliability analysis model for the crashworthiness capacity of CEAS is developed. An explicit finite element analysis is used to calculate the peak crushing force and the specific energy absorption of CEAS which are presented by the quadratic response surface. Two numerical examples of CEAS are presented for verification of the validity of the proposed method.

Elastic-damage deformation response of fiber-reinforced polymer composite laminates with lamina interfaces

“…Such stress localization facilitates the failure processes and significantly affects the reliability of the composite structures. [1][2][3] The failure processes in a unidirectional lamina could be described by the initiation and evolution of damage as illustrated in Figure 1, when subjected to a quasi-static, monotonic load. 4 The typical mechanisms of matrix failure and matrix crack-induced interface delamination could be viewed in terms of the micro-, mesoor macro-scale events.…”

An effective evidence theory‐based reliability analysis algorithm for structures with epistemic uncertainty

“…Besides being widely used in reliability and reliability‐based optimization, evidence theory is also applied in hybrid reliability analysis. Duan et al 28 proposed a hybrid reliability analysis model and used it to estimate the crashworthiness capacity of a composite energy‐absorbing structure with both random and epistemic uncertainty. Wang and Matthies 29 used evidence variables and fuzzy variables to describe the epistemic uncertain parameters, and proposed a two‐stage reliability analysis framework to overcome the defects of traditional single uncertainty modeling methods.…”