Slepian modeling as a computational method in random vibration analysis of hysteretic structures

The Slepian model process method combined with envelope level crossing properties provesits usefulness as a tool for fast simulation of approximate plastic displacement responses of a wide classof elasto-plastic oscillators (EPOs) of one or moredegrees of freedom excited by stationary Gaussian white noise. The computation time for obtaining estimates of relevant statistics on a given accuracy level is decreased by factors of one ormore orders of size as compared to the computation time needed for direct elasto-plastic displacementresponse simulations by vectorial Markov sequence techniques. Moreover the Slepian method gives valuablephysical insight about the details of the plastic displacement development by time.The paper gives a general self-contained mathematical description of the Slepian method based plasticdisplacement analysis of Gaussian white noise excited EPOs. Experiences with the method are reported with reference toearlier papers. Finally the convincing accuracy of the method is illustrated by an example of one degreeof freedom EPOs with hardening or softening plastic behavior.