Exact response probability density functions of some uncertain structural systems.

THIS PAPER HAS THE GOAL OF DEFINING A CLASS OF UNCERTAIN STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS for which it is possible to consider an approach able to give the exact response in terms of the probability density function (PDF). The uncertain structures have been identified in the discretized statically determined ones and the approach has been identified in the coupling of the approximated principal deformation modes method (APDM) and of the probability transformation method (PTM). The first one gives the explicit relationships between the response variables and the uncertainty ones, that are exact when the structures are statically determined. The second method allows to determine the explicit relationship between the PDFs of the response and of the uncertainty variables. The results of some applications have confirmed the goodness of these choices and that the proposed approach gives always exact results for both correlated and uncorrelated uncertainty random variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]