The design of engineering systems is often based on analysis models with substantial errors in predicting failures, that is epistemic uncertainty. The epistemic uncertainty is reduced by post design tests, and the safety of unsafe designs restored by redesign. When this process of design, test and redesign is to be based on probabilistic analysis, there is some controversy on whether uncertainty associated with variability (aleatory uncertainty) should be treated differently than the epistemic uncertainty. In this paper we compare several approaches to design and redesign and treatments of the epistemic uncertainties. These include safety factors, probabilistic approach disregarding redesign and regarding redesign, treating epistemic uncertainty and aleatory uncertainty the same, and more conservative treatment of the epistemic uncertainty. We demonstrate that the proposed approach can allow tradeoff of system performance against development cost (probability of redesign), while a standard reliability based design optimization, which does not take into account future redesign, provides only a single point on the tradeoff curve. We also show that the tradeoff can be achieved even with the traditional safety factor approach, without any probabilistic optimization. Furthermore, we investigate different treatments of epistemic error for probability of failure calculation. We find that it is possible to design to the 95th percentile of the probability of failure with modest mass penalty compared to treating epistemic and aleatory uncertainty alike.
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ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference
August 12–15, 2012
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Design Engineering Division
- Computers and Information in Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4506-6
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Reliability Based Design Optimization Considering Future Redesign With Different Epistemic Uncertainty Treatments
Taiki Matsumura,
Taiki Matsumura
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
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Raphael T. Haftka,
Raphael T. Haftka
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
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Bhavani V. Sankar
Bhavani V. Sankar
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
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Taiki Matsumura
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Raphael T. Haftka
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Bhavani V. Sankar
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Paper No:
DETC2012-70438, pp. 805-814; 10 pages
Published Online:
September 9, 2013
Citation
Matsumura, T, Haftka, RT, & Sankar, BV. "Reliability Based Design Optimization Considering Future Redesign With Different Epistemic Uncertainty Treatments." Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Volume 7: 9th International Conference on Design Education; 24th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology. Chicago, Illinois, USA. August 12–15, 2012. pp. 805-814. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2012-70438
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