Response sensitivity analysis and robust design based on stochastic response surface method

For calculating the first two statistical moments of structural response and sensitivity analysis of stochastic structures, a new response sensitivity analysis method was presented on the basis of stochastic response surface method(SRSM). Then the method was applied to structural robust design problem. The implicit structural response function was transformed to an explicit function by SRSM, and mean value, standard variance and the sensitivity of structural response can be obtained from the explicit function. Furthermore, the response sensitivity can also provide gradient information for gradient based optimization algorithm. Two examples demonstrate the efficiency and precision of the presented method, and the design efficiency of structural robust design was improved.