• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.175-184
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• 1997

The objective of this paper is to study arelationship between maximum response and its standard deviation of rotational shells that are subjected to uneven settlements. For this, the ratio, .eta, of the maximum response to standard deviation and it's approximate, .eta./sub apr/, are investigated by stochastic methods. Also, an equation for .eta./sub apr/, that is a function of predominant harmonic number is suggested. The settlements are represented by the Fourier series. Each term in the series contains two coefficients; the amplitude and the phase angle. It is assumed that phase angles are random variables and amplitudes are deterministic. To investigate the characteristics of .eta. and .eta./sub apr/, 100 phase angles for two types of artificial amplitudes spectra are used in the analysis. .eta. and .eta./sub apr/, are almost constant regardless of amplitude type, position of a shell or type of responses; they fall into from 2.0 to 2.5. .eta./sub apr/ is always close to .eta., but tends to be somewhat greater. It may be concluded that a maximum responses of rotational shells subjected to uneven settlements are .eta./sub apr/ (about 2.5) times of its standard deviation. It is considered that this result is used when we design rotational shell structures subjected to differential settlements.