The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

New approaches for the dynamic analysis of large structural systems

Wilson, Edward L.

UCB/EERC-82/04, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1982-06, 80 pages (555.6/W541/1982)

This report contains four papers, each presenting a new approach for the dynamic analysis of large systems. The first paper, "An Eigensolution Strategy for Large Systems," presents a significant modification of the well-known subspace iteration method. The second paper, "Dynamic Analysis by Direct Superposition of Ritz Vectors," presents a new technique for the automatic generation of Ritz vectors which, for certain types of loading, yield more accurate results than if the same number of exact eigenvectors is used. This technique completely eliminates the need for the eigenvalue problem in the modal superposition method. The third paper, "Three-Dimensional Dynamic Analysis for Multi-Component Earthquake Spectra," presents a rational method for the analysis of structures subjected to forces that have arbitrary earthquake spectra. The last paper, "Finite Elements for the Dynamic Analysis of Fluid-Solid Systems," presents new elements for the idealization of fluids. The element is based on a direct displacement approach in which the previously encountered zero-energy modes have been eliminated by the introduction of irrotational constraints.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-82-04.pdf (2 MB)