Statistical sensitivity analysis (SSA) is playing an increasingly important role in engineering design, especially with the consideration of uncertainty. However, it is not straightforward to apply SSA to the design of complex engineering systems due to both computational and organizational difficulties. In this paper, to facilitate the application of SSA to the design of complex systems especially those that follow hierarchical modeling structures, a hierarchical statistical sensitivity analysis (HSSA) method containing a top-down strategy for SSA and an aggregation approach to evaluating the global statistical sensitivity index (GSSI) is developed. The top-down strategy for HSSA is introduced to invoke the SSA of the critical submodels based on the significance of submodel performances. A simplified formulation of the GSSI is studied to represent the effect of a lower-level submodel input on a higher-level model response by aggregating the submodel SSA results across intermediate levels. A sufficient condition under which the simplified formulation provides an accurate solution is derived. To improve the accuracy of the GSSI formulation for a general situation, a modified formulation is proposed by including an adjustment coefficient (AC) to capture the impact of the nonlinearities of the upper-level models. To improve the efficiency, the same set of samples used in submodel SSAs is used to evaluate the AC. The proposed HSSA method is examined through mathematical examples and a three-level hierarchical model used in vehicle suspension systems design.
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July 2008
Research Papers
A Hierarchical Statistical Sensitivity Analysis Method for Complex Engineering Systems Design
Xiaolei Yin,
Xiaolei Yin
Graduate Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Northwestern University
, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3111
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Wei Chen
Wei Chen
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: weichen@northwestern.edu
Northwestern University
, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3111
Search for other works by this author on:
Xiaolei Yin
Graduate Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Northwestern University
, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3111
Wei Chen
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Northwestern University
, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3111e-mail: weichen@northwestern.edu
J. Mech. Des. Jul 2008, 130(7): 071402 (10 pages)
Published Online: May 19, 2008
Article history
Received:
June 17, 2007
Revised:
December 12, 2007
Published:
May 19, 2008
Citation
Yin, X., and Chen, W. (May 19, 2008). "A Hierarchical Statistical Sensitivity Analysis Method for Complex Engineering Systems Design." ASME. J. Mech. Des. July 2008; 130(7): 071402. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2918913
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