It is proposed to conduct a research program featuring a concept for treating structural engineering problems involving structures with uncertain (random) properties and loads. The proposed concept hinges upon the approximate representation of random processes describing the material properties or the structural loads by a finite number of random variables. This will be accomplished using the classical concepts of the Karhunen-Loeve and the Polynomials Chaos expansions. In the proposed program, these expansions will be incorporated into spatial discretizations of structural elements such as beams and plates, in accordance with standard finite element procedures.
