Computational stochastic structural analysis (COSSAN) – a software tool

The paper provides an overview of the current status of the COSSAN™ [Institute of Engineering Mechanics, Leopold-Franzens University, Innsbruck, Austria, EU. COSSAN. Computational stochastic structural analysis, User’s Manual, Part B, 2001; Part A, 1996] software developed at the Institute of Engineering Mechanics of the Leopold Franzens University, Innsbruck, Austria, EU. Two options provided by COSSAN™ are described: (1) A ‘Stand Alone Tool Box’ which is an event driven modular general purpose code and (2) the ‘Third Party Communication Tools’ which allow to employ deterministic Third Party (FE-) codes for stochastic analysis without the need to access and modify the third party source code. The Stand Alone Tool Box covers a fairly wide field of stochastic methods including various sampling techniques, random fields, fatigue analysis, reliability based optimization, random vibration, Monte Carlo simulation and FE-analysis. The Third Party Communication Tools are designed to extend existing deterministic FE-codes for considering uncertainties and consequently perform stochastic analyses using methods based on Monte Carlo procedures.