Stochastic finite element analysis of composite plates considering spatial randomness of material properties and their correlations

Considering the randomness of material parameters in the laminated composite plate, a scheme of stochastic finite element method to analyze the displacement response variability is suggested. In the formulation we adopted the concept of the weighted integral where the random variable is defined as integration of stochastic field function multiplied by a deterministic function over a finite element. In general the elastic modulus of composite materials has distinct value along an individual axis. Accordingly, we need to assume 5 material parameters as random. The correlations between these random parameters are modeled by means of correlation functions, and the degree of correlation is defined in terms of correlation coefficients. For the verification of the proposed scheme, we employ an independent analysis of Monte Carlo simulation with which statistical results can be obtained. Comparison is made between the proposed scheme and Monte Carlo simulation.