STRUCTURAL RELIABILITY ANALYSIS COMBINING ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION AND FINITE ELEMENT MODELING
Jhojan Enrique Rojas Flores1; Felipe Antonio Chegury Viana1; Domingos Alves Rade1
1 Federal University of Uberlândia
Resumo
Traditional structural design techniques use deterministic information of the problem, such as geometry, material properties, and loads. However, uncertainties regarding the analytical models, variability of material properties and fluctuations of loads can contribute to the possibility that the structure does not perform as intended. To address this concern, analysis methods have been developed to deal with the statistical nature of the input information. In this context, Reliability Analysis (RA) intends to find the best compromise between cost and safety and to supply guidelines for carrying out reliable and cost-effective projects, accounting for the statistical variability of the system properties and loads. A set of methods are readily applicable in the case where the limit state function is available in explicit analytical form. In the opposite case, it is necessary to evaluate it by using numerical models like those based on the Finite Element Method. In this work, it is presented a RA methodology that integrates a nature-inspired optimization method, namely Ant Colony Optimization, and Finite Element analysis. Numerical applications in statics and dynamics are performed in order to check the accuracy and efficiency of the present methodology.
Palavras-chave: Reliability Analysis; Ant Colony Optimization; Finite Element Analysis.