Abstract
A harmonic oscillator with time dependent random stiffness is considered. Since there is no exact solution in the case of colored noise random stiffness, approximate techniques must be used. The goal of this paper is to investigate an iterative procedure. The quality of this approximation, when compared to the exact solution, is established using a Monte Carlo simulation. In order to model a stiffness with positive values only, it is assumed that it has a doubly truncated Gaussian distribution. After a brief review of the iterative method and an outline of the design of the Monte Carlo simulation, an extensive parametric study is presented to establish ranges of parameter values for which the derived approximation is valid. This comparison study leads to a design criterion for mathematical modeling of structures with parametric uncertainties.