Stochastic seismic analysis of Kömürhan Highway Bridge with varying material properties

Abstract

Stochastic seismic finite element analyses of the Kömürhan Bridge, the material properties of which are described by random fields, are presented in this paper. The stochastic perturbation technique and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method are used in the analyses. A summary of MCS and perturbationbased stochastic finite element dynamic analysis formulation of the structural system is given. The Kömürhan Bridge, located on the 51st km of Elazıg-Malatya highway in the east of Turkey, was chosen as a numerical example. The Erzincan earthquake in 1992 was considered a ground motion, since it took place in the vicinity of the bridge. The material properties were considered to be random variables. During the stochastic analysis, displacements and internal forces of the bridge under consideration were obtained using the perturbation-based stochastic finite element method (SFEM), as well as the MCS method. The selected random variables were elastic modulus and mass density. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed SFEM algorithm were validated through comparison with results of the MCS method.

The stochastic finite element method in the assessment of bridge infrastructure objects - review

“…Only one-dimensional elements can be used (no plate, shell or block elements can be used). These tools were further used and developed for the probabilistic computations of bridges by the authors of [21] and [22]. The presented results of a probabilistic seismic analysis of a cantilever bridge and a cable-stayed bridge indicate the high efficiency of perturbation SFEM in relation to MCS.…”

Innovative methods for random field establishment and statistical parameter inversion exemplified with 6082-T6 aluminum alloy

“…Additionally, the meso-structure of materials is commonly simulated by molecular dynamics simulation 9,10 , and it can partially describe the macro-mechanical behavior but usually on the assumption of periodic boundary, which deviates significantly from the real heterogeneous materials with complex spatial distribution 11 . Thus for the simulation of large stochastic structures, such as buildings and airplanes, producing equivalent material properties at macro scale is an effective way, just as the stochastic finite element method (SFEM) does 12 .…”