Neural networks: Some successful applications in computational mechanics

Abstract

This article presents recent applications of neural computations in the field of stochastic finite element analysis of structures and earthquake engineering. The incorporation of Neural Networks (NN) in this type of problems is crucial since it leads to substantial reduction of the excessive computational cost. Earthquake- resistant design of structures using Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) is an emerging field in structural engineering. The efficiency of soft computing methodologies is investigated when incorporated into the solution of computationally intensive earthquake engineering problems considering uncertainties.