Reliability modeling in some elastic stability problems via the Generalized Stochastic Finite Element Method

The main idea of this work is to demonstrate an application of the generalized perturbation-based Stochastic Finite Element Method for a determination of the reliability indicators concerning elastic stability for a certain spectrum of the civil engineering structures. The reliability indicator is provided after the Eurocode according to the First Order Reliability Method, and computed using the higher order Taylor expansions with random coefficients. Computational implementation provided by the hybrid usage of the FEM system ROBOT and the computer algebra system MAPLE enables for reliability analysis of the critical forces in the most popular civil engineering structures like simple Euler beam, 2 and 3D single and multi-span steel frames, as well as polyethylene underground cylindrical shell. A contrast of the perturbation-based numerical approach with the Monte-Carlo simulation technique for the entire variability of the input random dispersion included into the Euler problem demonstrates the probabilistic efficiency of the perturbation method proposed.