Accounting for Modeling Errors and Inherent Structural Variability through a Hierarchical Bayesian Model Updating Approach: An Overview.

Mechanics-based dynamic models are commonly used in the design and performance assessment of structural systems, and their accuracy can be improved by integrating models with measured data. This paper provides an overview of hierarchical Bayesian model updating which has been recently developed for probabilistic integration of models with measured data, while accounting for different sources of uncertainties and modeling errors. The proposed hierarchical Bayesian framework allows one to explicitly account for pertinent sources of variability such as ambient temperatures and/or excitation amplitudes, as well as modeling errors, and therefore yields more realistic predictions.