• Architectural research
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.27-36
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• 2006

Structural uncertainties are generally modeled using probabilistic approaches in order to quantify uncertainties in behaviors of structures. This uncertainty results from the uncertainties of structural parameters. Monte Carlo methods have been usually carried out for analyses of uncertainty problems where no analytical expression is available for the forward relationship between data and model parameters. In such cases any direct mathematical treatment is impossible, however the forward relation materializes itself as an algorithm allowing data to be calculated for any given model. This study addresses a new method which is utilized as a basis for the uncertainty estimates of structural responses. It applies double uniform random numbers (i.e. DURN technique) to conventional Monte Carlo algorithm. In DURN method, the scenarios of uncertainties are sequentially selected and executed in its simulation. Numerical examples demonstrate the beneficial effect that the technique can increase uncertainty degree of structural properties with maintaining structural stability and safety up to the limit point of a breakdown of structural systems.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.3297-3304
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• 1994

Experimental investigation have been made to study the double-diffusive nature of convection of an initially stratified salt-water solution heated from below in a cylindrical cavity. The objective is to examine the process of mixed-layer formation, the flow phenomena, the heat transfer characteristics, and temperature and concentration distribution according to the changes in the effective Rayleigh number based on the reference height which represents the relation of temperature and concentration gradient. The types of initially formed flow pattern are categorized in three regimes depending on the effective Rayleigh number ; stagnant flow regime, single mixed-layer flow regime and successively formed multiple mixed-layer flow regime. The temperature and concentration profiles are both uniform in each layer due to convective mixing in the layered flow regime, but both linear in stagnant flow regime and single mixed-layer flow regime. At the interface between adjacent layers, the temperature changes smoothly but the concentration changes rapidly. The layers expand by diffusion of concentration through the interface along with its random fluctuation.