Applied Acoustics 87 (2015) 23–29

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Applied Acoustics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust

Uncertainty quantification in natural frequencies and radiated acoustic

power of composite plates: Analytical and experimental investigation
K. Sepahvand a,⇑, M. Scheffler b, S. Marburg a
a
Institute of Mechanics, Universität der Bundeswehr Munich, Neubiberg, Germany
b
Institute of Solid Mechanics, Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, the impact of elastic parameter uncertainty on the natural frequency and the radiated
Received 7 October 2013 acoustic power of laminated composite plates is investigated. Due to structure complexity, composites
Received in revised form 26 April 2014 exhibit great variability in mechanical properties. We adopt a model to develop stochastic natural
Accepted 11 June 2014
frequencies and the equivalent radiated power of rectangular laminated plates where elastic parameters,
natural frequencies and acoustic power density are represented using generalized polynomial chaos
expansions with arbitrary random basis. Available experimental data are used to realize the distribution
Keywords:
type of the parameters by utilizing the Pearson model. This realization is then employed to identify
Uncertainty quantification
Composite plate
orthogonal random basis for each uncertain parameter. A non-intrusive collocation based method is con-
Polynomial chaos ducted in order to calculate the deterministic polynomial chaos coefficients of the natural frequencies
Radiated acoustic power and the acoustic power density. Numerical results show that the natural frequencies and as well as
Experimental modal analysis the radiated acoustic powers are strongly affected from uncertainty in input parameters.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Over the last decade, the development of non-sampling sto-

Assigning deterministic values to mechanical properties of
composite structures is not often possible due to the microstruc-
tural complexity and inherent variations in material parameters.
These parameters exhibit some degree of uncertainty and even
accurate deterministic models lead to approximate results for such
structures. The wide use of composite structures requires more
precise investigation to include the impact of these uncertainties.
Homogenization methods regarding the volume fraction of afore-
said structures are used to cover uncertainties and variations in
estimation of elastic properties of the constituents [1,2]. This is
only ensured for an average value of the parameters. In contrast,
stochastic methods such as Monte Carlo (MC) techniques, reliabil-
ity analysis and perturbation approaches provide more details
about parameter uncertainties. These sampling-based methods in
conjunction with finite element method (FEM) has been widely
used to quantify uncertainty in many engineering structures
[3–7]. However, their application is limited to small range of
uncertainties in addition to that they are time-consuming and
exhibit low rate of convergence.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 (0) 89 6004 4110.
E-mail address: sepahvand@unibw.de (K. Sepahvand).
chastic techniques appears to be the most widely used owing to
their strong mathematical basis and capability to produce func-
tional representations of stochastic variability. The generalized
polynomial chaos (gPC) expansion plays major role in these meth-
ods therewith uncertain parameters and structure responses can
be characterized by linear combination of random orthogonal basis
[8,9]. The polynomial basis for discretization of random space are
chosen from the hyper-geometric polynomials of Askey scheme
and the underlying random quantities are not generally restricted
to Gaussian random variables. The method has been extensively
used in engineering applications [10–17].
In this paper, we apply the gPC method to stochastic vibro-
acoustic analysis of laminated composite plates with uncertain
elastic parameters. Particularly, the impact of uncertainty in elastic
moduli and shear modulus on the natural frequencies and the
density of equivalent radiated acoustic power of the rectangular
laminated composite plates is investigated. The uncertain parameters
are approximated using truncated gPC expansions with predefined
orthogonal random basis. In the most practical applications, the
statistical parameter distributions are not available, or if available,
it may be assumed as the basic Gaussian. To this end, we realize
parameter distributions from available experimental data. This
realization is then employed to identify the random basis for the
gPC expansions. Stochastic non-intrusive collocation method is

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2014.06.008
0003-682X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
24 K. Sepahvand et al. / Applied Acoustics 87 (2015) 23–29

adopted to solve the stochastic governing equations numerically
from which the gPC coefficients of the natural frequencies are
estimated. The random equivalent radiated power density at each
mode is also estimated by using the gPC expansion and adopting
stochastic FEM at a set of random collocation points. Significant
contribution is achieved by identification the parameter distribu-
tions from real experimental modal data for large number of
sample plates.
This paper is organized as follows: in the next section, we pres-
ent the basic theory of the gPC and its application for uncertainty
quantification. The gPC formulation for stochastic free vibration
and random radiated acoustic power of laminated composite
plates is presented in Section 3. The identification of distribution
type for uncertain parameters from experimental data is demon-
strated in Section 4. Numerical results are given in Section 5 and
the final section discusses the conclusions.
2. Polynomial chaos expansion
hardly dependent on the order of expansion and selection of the
orthogonal basis [9].
3. Stochastic free vibration of composite plates
In this section, an analytical stochastic model for rectangular
laminated composite plates with orthotropic material model is
developed. A plate with orthotropic material implies that three
orthogonal planes of elastic symmetry at right angles to each other.
It is assumed that the material is perfectly elastic and that its elas-
tic behavior is determined by the existence of perpendicular sym-
metry axes. The spatial coordinates g1 and g2 are assumed parallel
to the length and the width directions of the plate, respectively.
Under these conditions, stochastic modal analysis is performed to
study the impact of uncertainty in the elasticity moduli E11 and
E22 and the shear modulus G12 on the natural frequencies. General
random vector n is employed to represent parameter uncertainties
in the governing equation of the thin plate. That is [17,20]

@ 2 W ðg1 ; g2 ; t; nÞ
A continuing attention has been paid to various applications of jðnÞr2 r2 Wðg1 ; g2 ; t; nÞ þ qh ¼0 ð4Þ
polynomial chaos for uncertainty quantification after it was first @t 2
introduced in the form of homogeneous expansion using orthogo-
where r2 is Laplacian, q is material density, h is the plate thickness
nal Hermite polynomial basis by Wiener [18]. The approach has
and j is the stochastic stiffness of the plate given as
been extended to the gPC expansion which permits the discretiza-
tion of multidimensional, non-Gaussian and non-stationary jðnÞ ¼ jðn1 ; n2 ; n3 Þ ¼ ½ K 11 ðn1 Þ K 12 ðn1 ; n2 Þ þ 2K 66 ðn3 Þ K 22 ðn2 Þ 
random fields [8,9]. The idea is that any uncertain parameter of
interest with limited variance can be approximated by a linear with
combination of orthogonal polynomials of some predefined ran-
3 3
dom variables. With this extension different type of polynomials E11 ðn1 Þh E22 ðn2 Þh
K 11 ðn1 Þ ¼ K 22 ðn2 Þ ¼
can be chosen for efficient quantification of uncertainty. Accord- 12ð1  m12 m21 Þ 12ð1  m12 m21 Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 3 ð5Þ
ingly, Gaussian random parameters are best approximated by m12 m21 E11 ðn1 ÞE22 ðn2 Þh G12 ðn3 Þh
3

Hermite polynomials of normally distributed random variables. K 12 ðn1 ; n2 Þ ¼ K 66 ðn3 Þ ¼

12ð1  m12 m21 Þ 12
Laguerre and Jacobi polynomials account for the best approxima-
tion of a Gamma and Beta distributed parameters, respectively Random variables n1 and n2 are used to represent uncertainty in
[19]. Young’s moduli E11 and E22 , respectively, and the uncertainty in
In general, the real-valued random variable ni defined on the shear modulus G12 is represented via n3 . The uncertain parame-
probability space ðX; F ; PÞ is a mapping from sample space X to ters are approximated using the gPC expansion as
real numbers, i.e. ni : X # R; F is a r-algebra on X and P is prob-
X
N1
ability measure. Then the gPC expansion of uncertain parameter E11 ðn1 Þ ¼ e1i W1i ðn1 Þ ð6aÞ
P with finite variance is a function of random variables i¼0
n ¼ fn1 ; n2 ; . . . ; nn gT and can be stated as
X X X
N2
P ¼ p0 þ pi Wi ðnÞ; p2i < 1 ð1Þ E22 ðn2 Þ ¼ e2j W2j ðn2 Þ ð6bÞ
i2N i2N j¼0

The first term in the gPC expansion, p0 , represents the mean value of
X
N3
the parameter and the remainder terms act for the parameter ran- G12 ðn3 Þ ¼ g k W3k ðn3 Þ ð6cÞ
domness. The random orthogonal polynomials Wi are multidimen- k¼0
sional function of the random vector n and possess the
Deterministic coefficients e1i ; e2j and g k are derived adopting Eq. (3).
orthogonality property of
The polynomial basis W1 ; W2 and W3 are called the individual basis,
hWi ; Wj i ¼ E½Wi ; Wj  ¼ E½W2i dij ð2Þ i.e. polynomials which are used to represent randomness in each
uncertain parameter. We attempt to determine the stochastic
in which dij represents the Kronecker delta and E denotes the expec- natural frequencies considering the plate stochastic transverse
tation value with respect to the probability space. The unknown deflection function Wðg1 ; g2 ; t; nÞ as
coefficients, pi , can be determined for statistically independent ran-
W mn ðg1 ; g2 ; t; nÞ ¼ Umn ðg1 ; g2 ; nÞe2pKmn ðnÞt ð7Þ
dom variables ni ; i ¼ 1; . . . ; n, by stochastic Galerkin projection with
respect to the test function Wk ðnÞ as [19] where Umn ðg1 ; g2 ; nÞ is stochastic mode shape, Kmn ðnÞ is the stochas-
Z tic natural frequency and m and n are the number of nodes along g1
1
pi ¼ hP; Wk ðnÞif1 ðn1 Þ; . . . ; fn ðnn Þdn1 ; . . . ; dnn ð3Þ and g2 directions, respectively. The stochastic natural frequencies of
hW2i i X
free-supported plate with dimensions of a  b are derived by substi-
tuting Eq. (7) into (4). This leads to
and fi ðni Þ is the probability density function (PDF) corresponding to
the random variable ni . Using the gPC, the approximation of K4mn ðnÞp2
uncertain parameter P is shifted to the calculation of deterministic K2mn ðnÞ ¼ 4
ð8Þ
4qha
coefficients pi . These coefficients completely characterize the
identification of parameter P. The accuracy of approximation is with K4mn ðnÞ represents as
 K. Sepahvand et al. / Applied Acoustics 87 (2015) 23–29 25

a4 a2 point method in numerical stochastic simulation has been reported

K4mn ðnÞ ¼ K 11 ðn1 ÞB4m þ K 22 ðn2 ÞB4n þ 2 ½K 12 ðn1 ; n2 ÞF m F n
b
4
b
2 in [22].
þ 2K 66 ðn3 ÞJ m J n  ð9Þ
3.1. Random equivalent radiated acoustic power
The constants Bi ; F i and J i are determined according to the bound-
ary conditions, cf. [21]. The natural frequencies are considered as The random radiated sound power can be calculated by the
random variables with the gPC representation of fluid pressure and the velocity of vibrating structural surface
[23–25]. This requires solving a coupled fluid-structure problem
X
N4
K2mn ðnÞ ¼ kmnq Wq ðnÞ ð10Þ which may be very time consuming. Alternatively, one may calcu-
q¼0 late the equivalent radiated power (ERP) which is a simplified scale
to gaining information about the maximum possible radiated
In this expansion, the polynomial basis W can be derived using dynamic power from a vibrating structure [26]. It is assumed that
Hilbert space properties as W ¼ W1  W2  W3 , see [19] for details. each element of the vibrating structure surface acts as a rigid pis-
The stochastic gPC representation of eigenfrequencies are obtained ton and the pressure P can be replaced by the velocity v as P ¼ qcv
by substituting all gPC expansions in Eq. (8). The approximation where c is the speed of sound. Accordingly, the random ERP is sta-
error is defined as ted as
( " Z
N4
X 3 XN1
p2 h 1
ðnÞ ¼ kmnq Wq ðnÞ  4 12ð1  m m Þ
B4m e1i W1i ðn1 Þ Pðx; nÞ ¼ qc jv ðx; nÞj2 dA ð16Þ
q¼0 4qha 12 21 i¼0 2 A
#
" pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 3
4X
N2
4a a2 m12 m21 h in which A is the area of the vibrating structure surface and x is the
þBn 4 e2j W2j ðn2 Þ þ 2 2
b j¼0 b 12ð1  m12 m21 Þ vibration frequency. The random ERP density is then defined as
39
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi >
> pðx; nÞ ¼ PðxA;nÞ. Estimation of the ERP, however, requires doing har-
XN1 XN2 h
3 XN3
7= monic analysis of the structure from which the random velocity is
F mF n e W ðn Þ e W ðn Þ þ 2 J J g W ðn Þ 7
i¼0 1 i 1 i 1 j¼0 2 j 2 j 2
12
m n k 3 k 3 5 >
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} k¼0 >
; calculated. It is assumed that the damped structure is excited by a
nonlinear term deterministic harmonic force and the impact of parameter uncer-
ð11Þ tainties is only appeared in the stiffness matrix. Without loss of
generality, we estimate the ERP density at some vibration modes
The most probable gPC coefficients kmnq are obtained by minimizing
of the plate. To this end, the stochastic FEM model of the structure
the approximation error over all random sample space X, i.e.
harmonic analysis is performed and the maximum value of the
kmnq  arg minðnÞ ð12Þ mobility at frequency Knm is calculate on a set of random collocation
X
points. The gPC expansion is used to approximate the ERP density at
Knowing the gPC representation of the parameters, Eq. (12) gives vibration modes, i.e.
the deterministic gPC coefficients of stochastic natural frequencies.
Np
X
This can be achieved by employing stochastic Galerkin projection
pnm ðnÞ ¼ aðnmÞ
r Wr ðnÞ ð17Þ
and orthogonality properties of the basis as presented in [17]. Here, s¼0
we employ collocation-based non-intrusive stochastic method
which is more effective for such stochastic equation with nonlinear where pnm ðnÞ denotes the maximum ERP density. Once pnm values
ðmnÞ
term. The method intends to compute the unknown gPC coefficients are estimated at the collocation points, the coefficients ar are
of random eigenfrequencies by means of a pseudo-random sam- calculated for each vibration mode by adopting any least-square
pling of the random variables in stochastic space. The sampling minimization procedure, see [22,27] for details.
space are implicitly prescribed by the selected collocation points The most important aspect of the gPC representation of random
from the random orthogonal quantities is that the randomness is effectively transferred into the
n basis. Therefore, o for the vector of sam-
n¼ ^
ple collocation points ^ n1 ; ^
n2 ; . . . ; ^
nn ; n P N 4 , the error in Eq. basis polynomials which are constructed from the individual
(11) is vanished at these points with respect to the weight function polynomials of the uncertain parameters. Depending on the type
wðnÞ ¼ dðn  ^nÞ, i.e. of uncertainty distribution, a set of orthogonal polynomials of basic
Z random variables can be found to construct the gPC expansion of
ðnÞdðn  ^nÞf ðnÞdn ¼ 0 ð13Þ parameters. For instance, for a lognormal distributed uncertain
^n parameter, Hermite orthogonal polynomials of standard normally
distributed random variables can be employed [9,28]. This means
where the Delta distribution dðn  ^
nÞ has the properties
( that the basis identification is hardly depends on the type of
0 n – ^n parameter distribution. For practical applications, the basis is iden-
dðn  ^nÞ ¼ ð14Þ tified from experimental data as discussed in the next section.
1 n ¼ ^n

and for the continuous distribution function f ðnÞ at ^

n 4. Distribution identification of uncertain parameters
Z
dðn  ^nÞf ðnÞ ¼ f ð^nÞ ð15Þ Information on the gPC expansion of uncertain parameters is
X
required to determine the coefficients of stochastic natural fre-
An infinite number of collocation points can chosen, however, one quencies and the ERP density in Eqs. (12) and (17). To construct
has pick points where the probability function f ð^
nÞ is large. The these gPC expansions, one has to know the distribution type of
minimum number of the collocation points must be at least equal parameters to identify the gPC basis and corresponding standard
to the number of unknown coefficients in the approximating gPC random variables fni g. The most common approach is digitally
expansions. in this paper we generate collocation points from the generated realizations of uncertain parameters from predefined
roots of random orthogonal polynomial W. A minimization PDF using the MC simulation. In this section, we use experimental
procedure based on least-square method is implemented if the data available for the elastic parameters which are derived for M
number the generated points are more than the number of samples of topologically identical plates. We assume that a colloca-
unknown coefficients. The implementation details of the collocation tion of experimental data is observed over a finite subset of
26 K. Sepahvand et al. / Applied Acoustics 87 (2015) 23–29

th
P ¼ fP 1 ; P 2 ; . . . ; P M gT for each uncertain parameter. Then, the k
central moment about the parameter mean value lk for the avail-
able experimental finite data with standard deviation r is given by
M  k
1 X M
k 1X ½P i  EfPg
lk ¼ ½P i  EfPg  ¼ ; kP2 ð18Þ
M rk i¼1 M i¼1 r
The goal is to find f ðPÞ as the PDF of the uncertain parameter P.
Here, we use the Pearson model [29] as

df ðPÞ Pa
¼ dP ð19Þ
f ðPÞ b0 þ b1 P þ b2 P 2
where a and bi are constants derived from the third and fourth sta-
tistical central moments, respectively. The Pearson distribution
family contains many popular PDF (e.g. Normal, Beta and Gamma)
as well as general nonstandard type. Since Eq. (19) is a first order
linear differential equation with variable coefficients, its solution Fig. 3. The Pearson system shows the PDF type of uncertain elastic parameters. The
is straightforward: ðb1 ; b2 Þ-coordination of the Gaussian PDF is located at ð0; 3Þ.

 Z 
Pa
Table 1
f ðPÞ / exp  dP ð20Þ
b0 þ b1 P þ b2 P 2
Sample dimensions; a: length, b: width and h: thickness; with the mean value of
elastic parameters taken from [30] for the investigated plates. 2
Based on the roots of quadratic expression D ¼ 4b0 b2  b1 and val-
Dimensions (mm) a ¼ 190 b ¼ 100 h ¼ 10 ues b2 , Eq. (20) yields to various PDF types. However, for empirically
Elastic parameters (Mpa) E11 ¼ 15; 200 E22 ¼ 1303 G12 ¼ 862 l2
identification, the values of b1 ¼ l33 and b2 ¼ ll42 on the Pearson chart
Poisson’s ratios (–) m12 ¼ 0:44 m21 ¼ 0:08 – 2 2

are used to find the coordinate of the more common al we shall use
coordinate points of PDF type. Since the estimation of the pair
ðb1 ; b2 Þ is unique for each subset, the Pearson model provides a
unique PDF type for each uncertain parameter.

5. Numerical simulation

In this section we apply the proposed method to quantify

uncertainty in natural frequencies and the ERP densities of sample
laminated composite plates due to randomness in the E-moduli
E11 ; E22 and the shear modulus G12 . Test specimens are made of
beechwood with dimensions and the mean value of elastic param-
eters given in Table 1. Wood plates, as biocomposite, possesses
large scale of uncertainties even they are produced from the same
tree. To get a priori information on the distribution type and, con-
sequently, construction of the gPC for the uncertain elastic param-
eters, experimental modal analysis is performed on 100 samples of
topologically identical plates, cf. Fig. 1. The plates have been pro-
duced with high accuracy, so that any variation in structural
Fig. 1. Experimental model analysis on wood plate samples having identical responses is accounted for material parameters. To minimize mea-
geometry. surement errors, data are collected 3 times at each point and the

−10 −9 −8
x 10 x 10 x 10
7 2

4
6

1.5
5
3
4
1
3 2

2
0.5
1
1

0 0 0
12 13 14 1.1 1.2 1.3 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95

Fig. 2. Distribution of the experimental elastic parameter for 100 composite plates with identical dimensions given in Table 1.
 K. Sepahvand et al. / Applied Acoustics 87 (2015) 23–29 27

−10 represent these uncertainties by the gPC, we need to know the

x 10
PDF type and, consequently, the random basis and random vari-
5
ables corresponding to each uncertain parameter. To achieve this
4
goal, the Pearson coordinate points, b1 and b2 , are calculated for
3
2 each uncertain parameter. The results are shown in Fig. 3. The
1 Pearson model provides a unique PDF for each uncertain parame-
ter. It is shown that all uncertain parameters are distributed by
11 12 13 14 15 16 Type-I which is corresponding to Beta distribution. This shows that
the uncertain parameters are far from Gaussian random variables
with coordinates of ðb1 ; b2 Þ ¼ ð0; 3Þ. Furthermore, it is demon-
−9
x 10 strated that the coordinates of the shear modulus is very close to
3.5 Type-III (dotted line) which is corresponding to Gamma PDF. This
2.5 means that possible data disturbances may push the PDF type from
Beta to Gamma for this uncertain parameter. This requires to use
1.5
different orthogonal basis and standard random variables for the
0.5 gPC representing of the modulus G12 . This issue makes our simula-
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 tion more complicated due to the fact that the orthogonal basis for
natural frequencies must be constructed using 2D polynomials.
However, as mentioned before, the Pearson model provides unique
−8
x 10 PDF type even for limited subset data. This property is the most
notable advantage of the Pearson model in compression with other
1.4
PDF identification methods, e.g. maximum likelihood estimation.
1 The identified Beta-distributed PDFs of uncertain parameters are
0.6 shown in Fig. 4 for limited intervals. These intervals determine
minimum and maximum values of the relevant parameters. In par-
0.2
ticular, the asymmetrical PDFs show remarkable differences in
0.78 0.82 0.86 0.90 0.94 comparison with the Gaussian-distributed PDF (dashed lines) for
E11 and G12 .
In so far as the distributions of the uncertain parameters are
Fig. 4. The identified PDF for uncertain elastic parameters. The dashed lines show
the Gaussian PDFs. identified as Beta PDF, the Hermite orthogonal polynomials Hi
are employed as the basis to construct the gPC expansions, i.e. in
Eqs. (6a–c) we set W1i ðn1 Þ ¼ W2j ðn2 Þ ¼ W3k ðn3 Þ ¼ HðnÞ where
average have been recorded. The elastic parameters for each sam- n 2 N½0; 1. With these gPC expansions, Eq. (13) can be used for cal-
ple are derived using deterministic governing equations. We use culation of the gPC coefficients of the natural frequencies. Third
these realizations as true values to identify the PDF type of param- order gPC expansions are used to approximate the natural frequen-
eters. The frequency distribution of these uncertain parameters are cies of the first four vibration modes. A set of 17 collocation points
shown in Fig. 2. They have been constructed by selecting a number generated from the roots of fourth order random Hermite polyno-
of specific intervals to provide enough information to picture the mial are used to calculate these coefficients. The PDFs of the natu-
shape of parameter distributions and inherent uncertainties. To ral frequencies are shown in Fig. 5 in comparison with the

0.01
0.04
0.008
0.03
0.006
0.02
0.004

0.01 0.002

0 0
640 660 680 700 720 1150 1200 1250 1300 1350 1400 1450 1500

−3
x 10
7 0.01
6
0.008
5
4 0.006

3 0.004
2
0.002
1
0 0
1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

Fig. 5. PDFs characterizing the uncertainty in the first 4 natural frequencies. Bolded lines show PDFs obtained from the gPC expansions and the dashed lines denote the
results from the MC simulation with 2000 realizations.
28 K. Sepahvand et al. / Applied Acoustics 87 (2015) 23–29

10−3 For instance, while K11 shows %8:5 variation from its mean value,
this variation is more than %16 for the third frequency K02 .
The random ERP density for the sample plates under uncer-
10−4 tainty in the martial parameters is investigated in the next step.
Once the experimentally identified gPC of the parameters are
known, the stochastic simulations for the harmonic analysis of
10−5
the plate with constant and deterministic damping ration of 0:02
is performed to calculate the ERP density at the first four vibration
modes. A harmonic force of f ðtÞ ¼ 80 sinðxtÞ for x 2 ½100; 2000 Hz
is applied to one corner of the plate. The mobility is also calculated
10−6
at this corner. Some realizations of the plate mobility are shown in
Fig. 6 in comparison with the result from deterministic simulation.
As demonstrated, the impact of the parameter uncertainties on the
10−7
200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 mobility amplitude and frequency shift can be easily observed. The
random ERP density pðnÞ at each mode is approximated by means
of the second order gPC expansion from Eq. (17) as
Fig. 6. Sample realizations of the plate mobility in comparison with the result for ðnmÞ ðnmÞ ðnmÞ
deterministic simulation (bold line). pnm ðnÞ ¼ a0 þ a1 n þ a2 ðn2  1Þ ð21Þ

The ERP density can thus be computed from the normal velocities
locally at each point of the plate. A four nodes square element is
Table 2 used for 19  10 FEM mesh of the free–free plate with the same
The gPC coefficients (105 ) and the standard deviation of the random ERP density
dimensions and nominal material properties given in Table 1. The
for the first 4 vibration modes.
ERP density has been calculated for the modal modes from the max-
a0
ðnmÞ ðnmÞ
a1
ðnmÞ
a2 rð105 Þ imum normal velocity. A set of 17 collocation points are generated
p11 4.7309 1.4040 0.2591 1.428
from the fourth order random Hermite polynomials. The coeffi-
ðnmÞ
p20 0.0023 0.0026 0.0009 0.0028 cients ai are tabulated in Table 2. The coefficients converge
p02 0.0259 0.0016 0.0006 0.0018 rapidly, means that the second order gPC has good accuracy for
p21 0.0107 0.0047 0.0002 0.0046 ðnmÞ
approximation of the ERP densities. For each mode, a0 denote
the mean value. The standard deviation is calculated as
hP i1=2
identified PDFs from the MC simulation with 2000 realizations. It r ¼ 2i¼1 a2i h2i where hi is the norm of orthogonal polynomials,
seems that the third order gPC has reasonable accuracy for repre- see Eq. (2). The r values are given in Table 2. The first mode power
sentation of the natural frequencies compared to the MC results. density show large deviation from the mean vale. This means that
The PDFs describe the range of potential natural frequencies at the uncertainty in material parameters has significance impact on
some probability levels. They can also be used to estimate the the ERP for this mode. The PDF of the estimated ERP density at each
probability that the frequencies will exceed a specific threshold mode is shown in Fig. 7. As shown, the first mode ERP density is
of performance measure target values due to the parameter uncer- almost larger than other modes with factor of 100. Furthermore,
tainties. As shown in Fig. 5, whereas the first natural frequency the PDFs show asymmetric with varying degrees of skewness
usually does not change much for uncertainty in the parameters, w.r.t. the mean value. For instance, while the parameter
this effect is much more pronounced at higher mode frequencies. uncertainties increase the level of ERP for the third mode, the ERP

4 7
x 10 x 10
3 4

3
2
2
1
1

0 0
5 10 15 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
−5 −7
x 10 x 10

7 6
x 10 x 10
5 10

4 8

3 6

2 4

1 2

0 0
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 1 2 3 4
−7 −7
x 10 x 10

Fig. 7. The PDF of the equivalent radiated power density at the first four vibration modes of the plate. The vertical lines show the positions of the deterministic results.
 K. Sepahvand et al. / Applied Acoustics 87 (2015) 23–29
values for the other modes deceased and, accordingly, the PDF of
these modes show positive skewness.
6. Conclusions
The application of the gPC method presented for stochastic
vibroacoustic of laminated composite plates with uncertain mate-
rial parameters. The gPC expansion is employed to approximate
the uncertain elastic parameters with pre-identified PDFs from
experimental data. The application of the Pearson model for iden-
tification of PDF type from experimental data has been presented.
This leads to a unique PDF type for the parameters and, conse-
quently, a unique random variable vector as the basis for each
uncertain parameter. The non-intrusive method is used for numer-
ical simulation where a set of random polynomial zeros are
employed as collocation points. A numerical simulation shows
the reliability and accuracy of the method in comparison with sam-
pling MC method with large number of realizations. It is also
shown that higher frequencies are mostly affected by uncertainty
in input parameters. The random density of equivalent radiated
power at the vibration modes of the plate are estimated from the
stochastic FEM methods employing collocation points. It is demon-
strated that this density possesses maximum mean value and
variance for the first vibration mode.
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