Surrogate Model Approaches for the Evaluation of Structural Safety of Suspended Ceilings

Suspended ceiling systems are widely used in construction as a solution especially for public buildings and offices. By installing a secondary ceiling system, the room height can be regulated and the utility systems of a structure can be accommodated. There are many methods to fix the suspended ceiling but one of the newest is the use of direct fastening. This method can significantly increase the installation speed of a ceiling and therefore reduce the cost of installation. Based on previous own laboratory tests conducted at the Institute of Structural Engineering BOKU and the use of a digital ceiling system the reliability of the fixing was evaluated. The results of the experimental investigation were used to feed the FE digital system on the basis of a Monte Carlo simulation. To extend our knowledge of the structural reliability of the system for more configurations the use of less computationally demanding surrogate models was implemented. Based on the surrogate models the optimized system configuration in terms of structural safety can be identified.