On using deterministic FEA software to solve problems in stochastic structural mechanics

Over the last three decades there has been an outstanding growth in the development of deterministic finite element codes with extensive analysis capabilities. Extension of such deterministic codes to solve problems in stochastic mechanics is of much interest to the academic research community and industry. In this paper we discuss some of the issues involved in integrating fully grown third-party deterministic finite element codes with stochastic projection schemes. The objective of this study is to lay the foundation for development of an easy-to-use general-purpose stochastic finite element software for carrying out probabilistic analysis of large-scale engineering systems. We present a brief introduction to stochastic reduced basis projection schemes and the steps involved in coupling them with a typical deterministic finite element software. We demonstrate with the help of a number of case studies how a coupled framework can be used for solving problems in probabilistic mechanics.