Variability of dynamic behavior of nite coupled structure with uncertainties

M. A. BEN SOUF
1,2,a
, M. ICHCHOU
1
, O.BAREILLE
1
, and M. HADDAR
2
1
Ecole centrale de Lyon, 36 Avenue Guy de Collongue, F-69134 Ecully Cedex, France
2
Ecole nationale dIng enieurs de Sfax, Unit e de M ecanique, Mod elisation et Productique, Tunisie
Abstract. The eect of uncertainties on the dynamic behavior of coupled elements is investigated. This paper
treated the case of two deterministic waveguides connected through a stochastic structure. The local variability
(mechanical or geometrical variability) of the coupling element aects the dynamics of the whole structure. In
order to predict the vibration behavior of the coupled media, which is described through wave propagation, the
rst step consists of elaboration of a hybrid method to evaluate the statistics (mean and standard deviation) of
reected and transmitted wave through the coupling element for semi-innite waveguides. This hybrid method
is based on a spectral formulation called the wave nite element (WFE) and the stochastic nite element
method. The second step consists of the evaluation of the statistics of kinematic variables for nite waveguides.
This presented methodology is applied and validated by Monte Carlo simulations.
1 Introduction
Eective and ecient vibration and acoustic analysis, mod-
eling and design methods are required to produce world-
leading products with good noise and vibration performance.
Noise and vibration levels must remain within safe limits,
there are issues regarding human comfort and a need of
ecient designs. In practice, specic methods are applica-
ble in a limited frequency region. Finite element analysis
(FEA) is a low frequency method which is both well de-
veloped and well established. At high frequencies ener-
getic methods are usually used like statistical energy anal-
ysis (SEA). There is however a mid-frequency gap: too
high for FEA, too low for SEA.
The Wave Finite Element (WFE) is a deterministic tech-
nique which considers the wave propagation problem of
periodic structures [1]. It treats the homogeneous waveg-
uide as a periodic system assembled by identical substruc-
tures using direct connection with the standard FE method.
This method describes the dynamics of structure regard-
ing wave propagation. The WFE was used by many re-
searchers to evaluate the forced response of structures [2].
Mencik et al. [3] treated the case of coupled media and
a diusion formulation was established through the WFE
approach.
Going higher in frequency, waves will be more and more
aected by local inhomogeneities and variabilities. Many
researchers studied the eect of these variabilities on the
structure behavior. Ichchou et al. [4] studied the eect of
mechanical and geometrical variabilities on the wave prop-
agation by extending the WFE method to a stochastic for-
mulation through the rst-order perturbation. This paper
presents an explicit way to predict the dynamics of a cou-
pled structures especially in the mid-frequency range. The
studied structure is supposed to contain uncertainties in
its coupling element (mechanical or geometrical uncertain-
ties). This presented paper try to express explicitly the ef-
fect of these uncertainties (in the coupling element) on the
a
e-mail: Mohamed-amine.ben-souf@ec-lyon.fr
whole structure dynamics. The rst section will discuss the
stochastic diusion matrix. The second section deals with
the uncertainty propagation on the forced coupled media.
The last part presents a studied case of the presented for-
mulation validated by Monte Carlo simulations.
2 Stochastic diffusion matrix
This section deals with the formulation of a stochastic dif-
fusion matrix for two semi-innite coupled structure. The
Wave Finite element is a spectral formulation which helps
the prediction of the dynamics behavior of a straight elas-
tic dissipative structures. Lets dene a structure which is
composed by N identical elements connected along the
principal direction, say axis x, and whose left and right
cross-sections are denoted as L and R, respectively. The
length of each subsystem, along axis x, is denoted as d.
Base on the classical nite element method, the dynamic
equilibriumequation of this subsystem, at frequency /2,
can be stated as follows [5]
_
D
LL
D
LR
D
RL
D
RR
_ _
q
L
q
R
_
=
_
F
L
F
R
_
(1)
where (n n) matrix D
ij
= K
ij

2
M
ij
({i, j} {L, R})
stands for the ij component of the dynamic stiness oper-
ator condensed on the left and right cross-sections, namely
D [5]. Here, K and M stand for the stiness and mass ma-
trices, respectively. Dissipation can be considered through
standard FEM models. According to Blochs theorem, the
dynamics of the global waveguide can be expanded on spe-
cic wave solutions of the form
q
R
= q
L
(2)
and
F
R
= F
L
(3)
MATEC Web of Conferences
Fig. 1. Two coupled waveguides through a stochastic coupling
structure
where denotes the propagation coecient. Inserting Eqs.
(2) and (3) into Eq. (1) leads to the following spectral prob-
lem [6]:
_
D
RL
+
i
(D
LL
+ D
RR
) +
2
i
D
LR
_
(
q
)
i
= 0 (4)
where (
i
, (
q
)
i
)
i=1,...,2n
stands for the wave modes of the
global system. Finally, the frequency response of the global
system can be expressed by expanding the kinematic vari-
ables of the considered subsystem on the basis of eigen-
vectors:
_
q
L
F
L
_
=
_

F
_
Q
L
and
_
q
R
F
R
_
=
_

F
_
Q
R
(5)
where
q
and
F
are the matrices of eigenvector (
q
)
i
and (
F
)
i
, respectively, and Q
L
and Q
R
are the (2n1) gen-
eralized coordinates evaluated for the left and right bound-
aries of the subsystem. The hybrid method (WFE/SFEM)
is used to establish the kinematic diusion matrix of stochas-
tic coupled structures. The deterministic formulation is de-
veloped in [1, 7] using Lagrange multiplier. For this pur-
pose, lets consider two deterministic periodic waveguide
are considered (see Fig. 1). In our case we will use the
SFEMwhich is elaborated by Ghanemand Spanos [8] based
on polynomial chaos expansion. The stochastic diusion
matrix is evaluated using one layer of element for each
waveguide and the uncertain coupled structure. The dy-
namical behavior of coupled element is written as:

K
coup
_
q
c

1
q
c

2
_
=
_

F
c

F
c

2
_
(6)
where

K
coup
is the stochastic dynamical stiness matrix
condensed on the left and the right sides of each sections

1
and
2
and q
c

1
and q
c

2
(resp.

F
c

1
and

F
c

2
) represent
the stochastic displacements (resp. forces) evaluated for
the same sections.
The continuity conditions can be expressed in matrix
form as:
_
q
c

1
q
c

2
_
=
_

_
q
(1)

1
q
(2)

2
_

_
,
_

F
(1)

F
(2)

2
_

_
=
_

F
c

F
c

2
_
(7)
where q
(1)

1
and q
(2)

2
(resp.

F
(1)

1
and

F
(2)

2
) represent the stochas-
tic displacements (resp. forces) evaluated in
1
and
2
for
each waveguide. The variability of coupled mechanical char-
acteristics aects directly the displacements and the forces
in the whole system. The equations (6) and (7) lead to ex-
press the relation between stochastic kinematic variables
on the left and on the right of substructure 1 and 2 using
the stiness matrix of coupling element as:

K
coup
_

_
q
(1)

1
q
(2)

2
_

_
=
_

F
(1)

F
(2)

2
_

_
(8)
The eigensolutions of the equation (4), the stochastic kine-
matic variables for each waveguide i can be expanded on
the wave base as:
q
(i)

i
=
_

inc(i)
q

ref(i)
q
_
_

Q
inc(i)

Q
ref(i)
_
,

F
(i)

i
=
_

inc(i)
F

ref(i)
F
_
_

Q
inc(i)

Q
ref(i)
_
(9)
where

Q
(i)
are the stochastic mode amplitudes and
(i)
are
the wave shapes. So the stochastic equilibrium equation
(8) can be expressed using equation (9) and it becomes the
following diusion matrix:
_

K
coup

inc
q
+
inc
F
_
.,,.

A
_

Q
inc(1)

Q
inc(2)
_
=
_

K
coup

ref
q
+
ref
F
_
.,,.

B
_

Q
ref(1)

Q
ref(2)
_
(10)
In a condensed form:
_

Q
ref(1)

Q
ref(2)
_
=

C
_

Q
inc(1)

Q
inc(2)
_
(11)
The projection of the stochastic diusion relation (11) leads
to write the zero order as:
_

Q
ref(1)

Q
ref(2)
_
=

C
_

Q
inc(1)

Q
inc(2)
_
(12)
where

C =
_

K
ref
q
+
ref
F
_
+
_

K
inc
q
+
inc
F
_
=

B
+

A (13)
where
+
is the pseudo-inverse.

C represent the deterministic diusion matrix. In addition,

the rst-order projection of equation (10) is written as:

A
_

Q
inc(1)

Q
inc(2)
_
+
A
_

Q
inc(1)

Q
inc(2)
_
=

B
_

Q
ref(1)

Q
ref(2)
_

B
_

Q
ref(1)

Q
ref(2)
_
(14)
The combination of equation (13) and (14) leads to ex-
press the standard deviation of the reected and transmit-
ted wave amplitude as:
_

Q
ref(1)

Q
ref(2)
_
=

C
_

Q
inc(1)

Q
inc(2)
_
+
_

B
1
_

A
+
B

C
__
_

Q
inc(1)

Q
inc(2)
_
(15)
where
A
and
B
represent the standard deviation of de-
ned matrices in equation (10) and explicitly expressed as:

A
=
K

inc
q

B
=
K

ref
q
(16)
where
K
is the standard deviation of the dynamic equi-
librium matrix for coupling element. Finally, with respect
to the rst-order expansion of equation (11), the standard
deviation of kinematic diusion matrix is expressed as:

C
=

B
1
_

A
+
B

C
_
(17)
This last equation provides the variability of the wave con-
version on local inhomogeneities.
Structural health monitoring
3 Forced response of coupled structure
The problemof two deterministic waveguides coupled through
a uncertain structure is addressed. The waveguides are com-
posed resp. by N
1
and N
2
subelements. The junction can
contain some mechanical or geometrical uncertainties. The
case of forced-clamped structure is treted. In previous sec-
tion (Sec.2) the stochastic reected amplitudes (in waveg-
uide 1 and waveguides 2) and stochastic incident ampli-
tudes (from waveguide 1 and waveguides 2) are related by
a stochastic diusion matrix as:
_

Q
ref
I

Q
ref
II
_
=
_

C
11

C
12

C
21

C
22
_ _

Q
inc
I

Q
inc
II
_
(18)
where
I
and
II
refer to waveguide respectively 1 and 2.
The boundary conditions for forced-clamped structure can
be deduced form equation 9 as:
For waveguide 1
_

inc
F
_
I

Q
inc(1)
I
+
_

ref
F
_
I

Q
ref(1)
I
=

F
0
(19)

Q
ref(N
1
+1)
I
=

C
11

Q
inc(N
1
+1)
I
+

C
12

Q
inc(N
2
+1)
II
(20)
For waveguide 2
_

inc
q
_
II

Q
inc(1)
II
+
_

inc
q
_
II

Q
ref(1)
II
= q
0
(21)

Q
ref(N
2
+1)
II
=

C
21

Q
inc(N
1
+1)
I
+

C
22

Q
inc(N
2
+1)
II
(22)
According to the Blochs theorem, the boundary conditions
can be express in matrix form as:
_

_
_

inc
F
_
I
_

ref
F
_
I
0 0

C
11

N
1
I

N
1
I
0

C
12

N
2
II

C
21

N
1
I
0
N
2
II

C
22

N
2
II
0 0
_

ref
q
_
I
_

inc
q
_
I
_

_
_

Q
inc(1)
I

Q
ref(1)
I

Q
ref(1)
II

Q
inc(1)
II
_

_
=
_

F
0
0
0
q
0
_

_
(23)
This presented formulation contain an ill-conditioned ma-
trix regarding the diagonal components.
Expanding the equation 23 and using a scaling process [3],
the standard deviation of the waves amplitude for the rst
subelements (for waveguide 1 and 2) can be expressed as:
_

Q
inc(1)
I

Q
ref(1)
I

Q
ref(1)
II

Q
inc(1)
II
_

_
=
_

_
1 0 0 0
0
N
1
I
0 0
0 0
N
2
II
0
0 0 0 1
_

_
_

_
1
_

inc
F
_
+
I
_

ref
F
_
I

N
1
I
0 0

C
11

N
1
I
1 0

C
12

N
2
II

C
21

N
1
I
0 1

C
22

N
2
II
0 0
_

inc
q
_
+
II
_

ref
q
_
II

N
2
II
1
_

_
+
_

_
_

inc
F
_
+
I

F
0
0
0

inc
q
_
+
II

q
0
_

_
0 0 0 0

C
11

N
1
I
0 0
C
12

N
2
II

C
21

N
1
I
0 0
C
22

N
2
II
0 0 0 0
_

_
_

Q
inc(1)
I

Q
ref(1)
I

Q
ref(1)
II

Q
inc(1)
II
_

_
_

_
(24)
where
F
0
represents the standard deviation of the excita-
tion force. Using the transfer martix, the rst-order term of
the wave amplitude for the k
th
element in wave guide 1 is
written as:
_

Q
inc(k)
I

Q
ref(k)
I
_
=
_

N
1
I
0
0
N
1
I
_
(k1)
_

Q
inc(1)
I

Q
ref(1)
I
_
(25)
Finally,
_

q
_
(k)
=
_
(
inc
q
)
I
(
ref
q
)
I
(
inc
q
)
I

I
(
ref
q
)
I

(1)
I
_ _

Q
inc(k)
I

Q
ref(k)
I
_
(26)
which represents the variability of displacement in waveg-
uide 1.
4 Numerical validation
This section deals with the validation of the presented for-
mulation. Lets dene two identical deterministic waveg-
uides connected through a stochastic coupling element (Fig-
ure 4). The waveguides properties are presented in the ta-
ble 4. The waveguides are discretized using a linear 3D
element. In order to identify the eect of the uncertainties
on the kinematic variables, we suppose that the coupling
element has a 5% of variability in its Youngs modulus.
When propagating waves encounter some changes, some
of the energy will be reected and transmitted. So, the rst
step consist on the investigation of the eect of the dis-
continuities on the diusion coecients. The Figure 4 rep-
resents the standard deviation of the reection and trans-
mission coecients for dierent type of waves. For ex-
ural waves, we remarque that the transmission coecient
is more sensitive regarding Youngs modulus uncertainty
than reection coecient. The presented results are ver-
ied using Monte Carlo simulations (2000 samples). For
longitudinal and torsional waves, a small dierence are re-
markable between the WFE/SFEM and Monte Carlo. This
dierence, in high-frequency, is due to the high level of
uncertainties regarding the rst-order perturbation used in
the presented formulation.
F
L
1
L
2
d
c
d
dc
d
Fig. 2. Two coupled element
The gure 4 represents the statistics of the displace-
ment in L
1
/2. Figure (a) shows the mean of displacement
MATEC Web of Conferences
E (Pa) (kg/m
3
) d (m) (%)
Waveguide 2 10
11
7800 5 10
3
3
Coupling element 2 10
10
6800 1 10
2
3
Table 1. Characteristics of studied structures
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
0
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
0.012
Frequency (Hz)
re
fle
c
tio
n
a
n
d
tra
n
s
m
is
s
io
n
c
o
e
ffic
ie
n
ts

(a)
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
0
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
Frequency (Hz)
re
fle
c
tio
n
a
n
d
tra
n
s
m
is
s
io
n
c
o
e
ffic
ie
n
ts

(b)
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
x 10
3
Frequency (Hz)
re
fle
c
tio
n
a
n
d
tra
n
s
m
is
s
io
n
c
o
e
ffic
ie
n
ts

(c)
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
x 10
3
Frequency (Hz)
re
fle
c
tio
n
a
n
d
tra
n
s
m
is
s
io
n
c
o
e
ffic
ie
n
ts

(d)
Fig. 3. Standard deviation of reection and transmission coef-
cients for dierent waves: (-red): reection, (- black): trans-
mission , ( red): reection Monte Carlo, ( black):transmission
Monte Carlo
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
10
7
10
6
10
5
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
Frequency (Hz)

M
e
a
n

o
f

d
is
p
la
c
e
m
e
n
t

a
t

x
=
L
1

/
2

(
m
)
(a)
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
10
8
10
7
10
6
10
5
10
4
10
3
Frequency (Hz)

S
t
a
n
d
a
r
d

d
e
v
ia
t
io
n

o
f

d
is
p
la
c
e
m
e
n
t

(
m
)

(b)
Fig. 4. Mean and standard deviation of displacement at L
1
/2,
(- black):WFE , (.): Ansys, (- blue): Presented formulation, (*)
Monte Carlo simulations
which is validated through Ansys using the classical nite
element method. The gure (b) presents the standard de-
viation of the displacement in the same node which rep-
resent, physically, the eect of the uncertainty in the cou-
pling element on the kinematic parameters. This result was
validated with Monte carlo simulations. A good agrement
between the two results is well shown in all frequency
band.
5 conclusion
A hybrid method combining two dierent approach was
investigated in this paper. The presented WFE/SFWE al-
lows to predict the eect of variabilities on the dynamical
behavior of connected structures. The presented formula-
tion was validated for a forced multi-modal waveguide vs
Monte Carlo simulations.
acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the ITN Marie Curie
project GA-214909 MID-FREQUENCY CAE Method-
ologies for Mid-Frequency Analysis in Vibration and Acous-
tics
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