Non Deterministic Approaches

A major issue in vehicle industry is the presence of variability in the physical properties and manufacturing processes. Deterministic approaches are unable to take into account these variabilities without leading to oversized structures. The necessity of assessing the robustness of a particular design requires a new methodology based on reliability analysis and design optimization through probabilistic models of design variables.

The vehicle lifetime is highly determined by the fatigue life of its components. Variability in the material parameters (Young's modulus, tensile strength, ...) may have a strong effect on the fatigue life. This is demonstrated in this paper for a vehicle knuckle structure.

Overall objectives

This project addresses methods for numerical simulation of dynamic behaviour of structures. Current industrial procedures for structural product analysis employ deterministic finite element models. But it is generally acknowledged that deterministic models are often oversimplified. Non-deterministic modelling procedures take into account aspects of uncertainty and variability. Scientific research in numerical methods in engineering has brought forward a number of very capable methods to model the effect of variability or uncertainties on technical characteristics of products.