Patent ID: 7552406

Claim:
A method for modeling a characteristic C that is distributed within a domain, said characteristic C having J subcharacteristics S 1 , S 2 , . . . , S J , said method comprising: storing a combination equation in at least one computer-readable memory device, said base equation expressing C as a function F of the J subcharacteristics, said J being at least 2; storing base equations in the at least one computer-readable memory device, said base equations expressing S j as a function f j of a variable V through use of N+1 parameters S j0 , S j1 , . . . , S jN , said base equations being of a form S j =f j (S j0 , S j1 , . . . , S jN , V), said N being at least 1, said parameters S j0 , S j1 , . . . , S jN being subject to uncertainty, said j having values of 1, 2, . . . , J; generating at least one probability density function (PDF) from PDF 1 , PDF 2 , . . . , PDF J , said PDF n describing a probability of occurrence of S n0 in accordance with said uncertainty for n=1, 2, . . . , J, said at least one PDF including PDF 1 ; for each PDF n not generated, generating an auxiliary equation E n expressing S n0 in terms of S 10 ; generating subsidiary equations expressing S j1 , . . . , S jN in terms of S j0 for each subcharacteristic S j of the J subcharacteristics; and storing the at least one PDF, the auxiliary equations, and the subsidiary equations in the at least one computer-readable memory device, wherein the combination equation, the base equations, the at least one PDF, the auxiliary equations, and the subsidiary equations are adapted to be accessed from the at least one memory device for usage in determining C.