Robustness analysis of structures based on plastic limit analysis with uncertain loads

Abstract

This paper presents a method for computing an info-gap robustness function of structures, which is regarded as one measure of structural robustness, under uncertainties associated with the limit load factor. We assume that the external load in the plastic limit analysis is uncertain around its nominal value. Various uncertainties are considered for the live, dead, and reference disturbance loads based on the nonstochastic info-gap uncertainty model. Although the robustness function is originally defined by using the optimization problem with infinitely many constraints, we show that the robustness function is obtained as an optimal value of a linear programming (LP) problem. Hence, we can easily compute the info-gap robustness function associated with the limit load factor by solving an LP problem. As the second contribution, we show that the robust structural optimization problems of trusses and frames can also be reduced to LP problems. In numerical examples, the robustness functions, as well as the robust optimal designs, are computed for trusses and framed structures by solving LP problems.