Computational Sensitivity Analysis for Construction Stage Models

This paper is about sensitivity analysis and discusses how computational approaches like adjoint sensitivity analysis can be adopted for structural analysis models which consider the construction stage process. It is also shown how the sensitivities can be visualized by sensitivity maps and how these can significantly support the use of sensitivity analysis in structural engineering practice. In addition to the methodological developments, the paper also focuses on demonstrating the application of the approach. By means of an example, sensitivity distributions based on a holistic building model and a construction stage model are computed and compared. In that regard, the paper discusses how sensitivity analysis can provide information about the properties of the used models and how sensitivity data can assist the model assessment.