This paper proposes extension of Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) to avoid the necessity of using intervals with the same probability area where intervals with different probability areas are used. This method is called Weighted Latin Hypercube Sampling (WLHS). This paper describes equations and detail procedure necessary to apply weight function to WLHS. WLHS is verified through numerical examples by comparing the estimated distribution parameters with those from other methods such as Random Sampling and Latin Hypercube Sampling. WLHS provides more flexible way on selecting samples than LHS. Accuracy of WLHS estimation on distribution parameters is depending on the selection of weight function. The proposed WLHS is applied to seismically isolated structures in nuclear power plants. In this application, clearance-to-stops (CSs) calculated using LHS proposed by Huang et al. [1] and WLHS proposed in this paper, respectively, are compared to investigate the effect of choosing different sampling techniques.

A B S T R A C T
 1. Introduction
 2. Weighted Latin Hypercube Sampling (WLHS)
  2.1 Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS)
  2.2 Weighted Latin Hypercube Sampling (WLHS)
 3. Numerical examples
  3.1 Assumed probability distribution of population
  3.2 Weighted Latin Hypercube Sampling
  3.3 Estimation of distribution parameters
  3.4 Asymmetric sampling
 4. Application to seismically isolated structuresin nuclear power plants
  4.1 Lumped-mass model for a seismically isolated structure
  4.2 Input ground motion
  4.3 Effect of WLHS on CS
 5. Conclusion
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
 REFERENCES

• Han, Minsoo(R&D Center, Innose Tech Co. Ltd)
• Hong, Kee-Jeung(Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kookmin University) Corresponding author
• Cho, Sung-Gook(R&D Center, Innose Tech Co. Ltd)