Homogenization of 1D elastostatics by the stochastic second-order approach (Q1582537)

This paper focuses on engineering aspects of homogenization method for one-dimensional periodic linear structures with random parameters. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with second-order perturbative central probabilistic moment analysis, which is the main mathematical tool. The author shows that arbitrary randomness in elasticity properties of a periodic bar structure can be described by one random variable, the homogenized effective Young modulus of the periodicity cell. An extension of the principle of virtual work to the corresponding stochastic counterpart allows to derive closed form expressions for the expected values and covariances of homogenized Young modulus (provided the structure under consideration has certain specific properties). Finally, the author demonstrates how the resulting equations can be treated by a stochastic finite element method, and gives some numerical illustrations.