USABILITY OF MATHEMATICAL-MODELS IN MECHANICAL DECISION-PROCESSES

Mathematical models of mechanical systems are developed to assist deci sion making for design, dynamic performance, structural interfacing, r eliability, etc. Model updating is a costly and time-consuming task, s o it is important to evaluate rigorously the quality of a model with r espect to the decisions which rely upon it. The measure of model usabi lity is that a model is usable to the extent that decisions based on t he model are robust to the associated uncertainties. The analysis of r obustness employs convex models of uncertainty, which are particularly suited to situations in which prior information about the uncertainti es is severely limited. Several examples of the analysis of model usab ility for mechanical decisions are considered, including a simple harm onic oscillator, a simple non-linear system, and a multidimensional li near frequency response model for predicting dynamic stability. (C) 19 98 Academic Press Limited.