This award is to develop probability-based design tools appropriate for a computer-aided structural design environment. The research will be limited to the study of static and vibrational behavior of elastic and elastic-plastic structures. There will be three phases to the investigation: (1) analytic study of the stochastic behavior of simple structures; (2) development and improvement of stochastic finite element methods and the adaption of these methods to the interactive computer-aided design (CAD) environment; and (3) the adaptation of Monte Carlo simulation methods to the interactive CAD environment. Results obtained in the first phase will be used to guide the development of techniques in the second phase. The relative merits of stochastic finite element methods and Monte Carlo methods for interactive CAD will be studied. The techniques developed in the research will aid in the integration of probability-based design methodology into the interactive CAD environment.
