Fuzzy approach for uncertainty analysis of thin walled composite beams

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop an analytical approach to evaluate the influence of material uncertainties on cross‐sectional stiffness properties of thin walled composite beams.Design/methodology/approachFuzzy arithmetic operators are used to modify the thin‐walled beam formulation, which was based on a mixed force and displacement method, and to obtain the uncertainty properties of the beam. The resulting model includes material uncertainties along with the effects of elastic couplings, shell wall thickness, torsion warping and constrained warping. The membership functions of material properties are introduced to model the uncertainties of material properties of composites and are determined based on the stochastic behaviors obtained from experimental studies.FindingsIt is observed from the numerical studies that the fuzzy membership function approach results in reliable representation of uncertainty quantification of thin walled composite beams. The propagation of uncertainties is also demonstrated in the estimation of structural responses of composite beams.Originality/valueThis work demonstrates the use of fuzzy approach to incorporate uncertainties in the responses analytically, in turn improving computational efficiency drastically as compared to the Monte‐Carlo method.