Numerical design methods with polymorphic uncertainty modelling

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Graf; Professor Dr.-Ing. Michael Kaliske
• Subject Area: Applied Mechanics, Statics and Dynamics
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 276783706

With the proposed research project, a paradigm shift is introduced in the numerical design of structures. The current state is characterized by deterministic thinking and practice. The representation of reality with deterministic models suggests accuracy and precision. Reality is the fact that all available data are characterized by uncertainty, incompleteness and inaccuracy (polymorphic uncertainty) which have to be taken into account appropriately and cannot be neglected.In the research project, innovative approaches and practices for structural design are developed that take the uncertainty of the data in all phases of design into account and to process it by numerical models to gain a new design quality. Engineering-oriented tools for the numerical design of structures under static and/or dynamic loads with consequent consideration of polymorphic data uncertainty need to be developed.The applied numerical simulations come along with high costs. This numerical effort increases exponentially, if the uncertainty of data is taken into account consistently and correctly. In addition to the use of appropriate uncertainty models, capturing the spatial and time dependency is required. On the basis of (relatively few) realistic, deterministic, nonlinear, numerical simulations, metamodels for the approximation of relevant result variables and sensitivity analysis have to be developed. The application potential for a numerical design of structures with polymorphic uncertainty modeling is very large and not limited to the Civil Engineering.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants