Nonprobabilistic modelling of dynamically loaded beams under uncertain excitations

A nonprobabilistic model for a dynamically loaded beam is developed, when the forcing function and the initial conditions may contain uncertain components. Uncertainty in these functions is required to be bounded in the L"2 norm and expressed using a finite number of eigenmodes. The specific expressions are determined for the dynamic loads which yield the least favorable deflection. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the solution procedure and to assess the effect of various problem parameters.