Fuzzy behavior of mechanical systems with uncertain boundary conditions

The problem of structures' sensitivities to uncertain boundary conditions i s presented in this paper and the effect of uncertain prescribed displaceme nts on the static response of structures is discussed. The imprecise or unc ertain prescribed displacements are treated as fuzzy quantities with known membership functions. For numerical computations, a fuzzy quantity can be a pproximated by sets of closed intervals with respect to specified alpha-cut s. This transforms the problem into a set of interval equations at each alp ha-level. A numerical method is developed to solve the system of fuzzy equa tions. Simple stress analysis is also used to establish and illustrate the method. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the capability of t he method. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.