Handling model approximations and human factors in complex structure analyses

Sgambi, Luca [UCL]

It is known that the analyses of complex structures can be affected by a great uncertainties and approximations. The paper schedules these approximations in three groups: numerical errors, modelling errors and human errors. After a brief discussion of these approximations, the paper put in evidence the importance to planning the numerical analysis of complex structures using different models, various structural codes and different people. The author put in evidence that the planning of the analysis means to build a model of the numerical models, so this process can be called as meta-modelling approach. The paper shows a simple application of the meta-modelling on the structural analysis of the long suspension bridge in order to increase the reliability of the results.