Arbitrary polynomial chaos expansion method for uncertainty quantification and global sensitivity analysis in structural dynamics

Uncertainty quantification (UQ) and global sensitivity analysis (GSA) of dynamic characteristics of complex systems subjected to uncertainty are jointly investigated in this paper. An efficient approach based on arbitrary polynomial chaos expansion (aPCE) is presented for analytical, unified implementation of UQ and GSA in structural dynamics. For UQ of dynamic characteristics, statistical moments and probability distributions of dynamic characteristics are analytically derived. Specifically, the aPCE is used to analytically calculate the statistical moments, and then the maximum entropy principle (MEP) is adopted to derive the closed-form expressions of the probability distributions using the obtained statistical moments. As an extension of UQ, GSA, which aims to assess the quantitative contributions of different structural parameters to the resultant variations of dynamic characteristics, is also analytically achieved by simply post-processing the aPCE coefficients. The present aPCE UQ and GSA method is highly computationally efficient for large-scale, complex structures, and it is also generally applicable independent of parameter distributions. The proposed aPCE-based approach for UQ and GSA is validated through a numerical truss bridge by the brute-force Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), and then is applied to a long-span steel arch bridge. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.