• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.477-493
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• 2005

In case of Mindlin plate, not only the bending deformation but also the shear behavior is allowed. While the bending and shear stiffness are given in the same order in terms of elastic modulus, they are in different order in case of plate thickness. Accordingly, bending and shear contributions have to be dealt with independently if the stochastic finite element analysis is performed on the Mindlin plate taking into account of the uncertain plate thickness. In this study, a formulation is suggested to give the response variability of Mindlin plate taking into account of the uncertainties in elastic modulus as well as in the thickness of plate, a geometrical parameter, and their correlation. The cubic function of thickness and the correlation between elastic modulus and thickness are incorporated into the formulation by means of the modified auto- and cross-correlation functions, which are constructed based on the general formula for n-th joint moment of random variables. To demonstrate the adequacy of the proposed formulation, a plate with various boundary conditions is taken as an example and the results are compared with those obtained by means of classical Monte Carlo simulation.