A Design-of-Experiments Plug-In for Estimating Uncertainties in Finite Element Simulations

Published

May 18, 2009

Author(s)

Jeffrey T. Fong, Roland deWit, Pedro V. Marcal, James J. Filliben, Nathanael A. Heckert

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to introduce an economical and user-friendly technique for estimating a specific type of finite element simulation uncertainties, or, "error bars," for a class of mathematical models, of which no closed-form or approximate solution is known to exist. Using PYTHON, ABAQUS-PYTHON, and a public-domain statistical data analysis software package named DATAPLOT, we present a design-of-experiments-based PYTHON-DATAPLOT-Uncertainty Plug-In (PD-UP) to estimate the finite element simulation uncertainties in a mathematical model due to variability in modeling parameters such as material property constants, geometric parameters, loading rates, etc. Examples of finite element simulations of the free vibrations of a single-crystal silicon cantilever beam in an atomic force microscope with an estimation of the uncertainties of one of the simulation results, namely, the first bending mode resonance frequency of the beam, are included

Proceedings Title

2009 Simulia Customer Conference

Conference Dates

May 18-21, 2009

Conference Location

London

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

ABAQUS, ANSYS, Atomic Force Microscope, DATAPLOT, Design of Experiments, Finite Element Method, Mechanics, Nanotechnology, Plug-In, PYTHON, Simulation, Single Crystal Silicon, Statistical Data Analysis, Uncertainty Analysis, Verification, Vibration.

Citation

Fong, J. , deWit, R. , Marcal, P. , Filliben, J. and Heckert, N. (2009), A Design-of-Experiments Plug-In for Estimating Uncertainties in Finite Element Simulations, 2009 Simulia Customer Conference, London, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=902335 (Accessed May 7, 2026)

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