The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

A substructure technique for nonlinear static and dynamic analysis

Row, Dennis G.; Powell, Graham H.

UCB/EERC-78/15, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1978-08, 202 pages (555.1/R67/1978)

In this paper, a "building block" procedure for structural description is presented, which is a generalization of the standard finite element assembly. The relation of each actual substructure to the complete structure is mapped through a connectivity tree. This tree provides the basis for data management and implementation of a systematic analysis procedure. The technique is formulated for nonlinear static and dynamic step-by-step analysis. With most solution strategies, nonlinear static or dynamic analysis requires a large number of step-by-step linear analyses. For a structure assembled as a single unit, a complete reanalysis may be required at each step if the nonlinearities are localized. A major computational advantage of the substructure technique is that only those substructures which change in behavior need to be reanalyzed at each step.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-78-15.pdf (33 MB)