Reliability and Sensitivity Analysis of Dendriform Structure

Reliability, sensitivity and correlation of dendriform structure are deeply investigated, respectively. Firstly, reliability of dendriform structures is carried out. Members in the dendriform structures are classified into four types according to their layouts. Wall thickness, external radius, Young's Modulus of members and vertical load are defined as random variables, respectively. Four kinds of performance functions, e.g., maximal nodal deflection, maximal stress, natural frequency and buckling eigenvalue, are taken into consideration. Secondly, sensitivity of above-mentioned four performance functions was presented to identify the effect of different kinds of random variables and different positions of members. Finally, correlations among performance functions are investigated. Numerical results can provide a reference for the design of dendriform structure.