Probabilistic Calibration of Computer Model and Application to Reliability Analysis of Elasto-Plastic Insertion Problem

A computer model is a useful tool that provides solution via physical modeling instead of expensive testing. In reality, however, it often does not agree with the experimental data owing to simplifying assumption and unknown or uncertain input parameters. In this study, a Bayesian approach is proposed to calibrate the computer model in a probabilistic manner using the measured data. The elasto-plastic analysis of a pyrotechnically actuated device (PAD) is employed to demonstrate this approach, which is a component that delivers high power in remote environments by the combustion of a self-contained energy source. A simple mathematical model that quickly evaluates the performance is developed. Unknown input parameters are calibrated conditional on the experimental data using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm, which is a modern computational statistics method. Finally, the results are applied to determine the reliability of the PAD.