Stochastic Finite Element Analysis of the Free Vibration of Laminated Composite Plates

Using the Stochastic Finite Element Method (SFEM) to perform reliability analysis of the free vibration of composite plates with material and fabrication uncertainties has received much attention lately. In this work the stochastic analysis is performed using the First Order Reliability Method (FORM-method 2) and the Second Order Reliability Method (SORM). The basic random variables include laminae stiffness properties and material density, as well as the randomness in ply orientation angles. Modeling of the composite behavior utilizes a nine-noded isoparametric Lagrangian element based on the third order shear deformation theory. The developed code utilizes MATLAB capabilities to derive the derivatives of the reduced stiffness and mass matrices symbolically with a considerable reduction in calculation time. Calculating the eigenvectors at the mean values of the variables proves to be a reasonable simplification which significantly increases solution speed. The stochastic finite element code is validated using available data in the literature, in addition to comparisons with results of the well-established Monte Carlo simulation technique with importance sampling. Results show that SORM is an excellent rapid tool in the stochastic analysis of free vibration of composite plates, when compared to the slower Monte Carlo simulation techniques.