Methods of non-linear stochastic dynamics for the assessment of structural fragility

Abstract

Some of the external events which can significantly contribute to the overall risk of a nuclear power plant, give rise to a dynamic excitation of the structural components which form the plant. The computation of the risk associated with these external events requires an investigation of the behaviour of the structural components beyond the elastic limit. The stochastic nature of the excitation, then, leads one to deal with a non-linear stochastic dynamic problem. No general method of solution exists for such a problem when large structural systems are considered, although classical methods of propagating uncertainty have been successfully employed. This paper investigates the possibility of formulating an approach founded on a suitable equivalent linearization technique. In particular the authors make operative a new method of fragility analysis to be applied directly to the linearized system. The numerical example considers a framed structural component: its aim is to show the degree of accuracy that can be reached by the approach formulated in the paper.