Probability of Failure Assessment of Building Using Traditional and Enhanced Monte Carlo Simulation Techniques

The main objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of the randomness of damping on the peak response of structure under rotating machine vibrations. Two methods: Traditional and Enhanced Monte Carlo Simulation techniques were used for a quantitative analysis of the failure probability for an industrial building in the neighborhood of a resonant frequency. The results show that excellent agreement was obtained using these methods for values of covariance of damping equal or less than 60%. However, for larger values, more important difference in results between both methods was observed for structures with light damping. Moreover, computer time savings were achieved by both methods and time domain solution strategies to evaluate sensitivity functions for dynamic systems with large number of degrees of freedom were discussed.