Variational Basis of Nonlinear Flexibility Methods for Structural Analysis of Frames
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 131, Issue 11
Abstract
There have been a number of contributions to the literature on a class of structural analysis methods referred to as nonlinear flexibility methods. These methods appear to perform very well compared to classical stiffness approaches for problems with constitutive nonlinearities. Although most of these methods appeal to variational principles, the exact variational basis of these methods has not been entirely clear. Some of them even seem not to be variationally consistent. We show in this paper that, because the equations of equilibrium and kinematics are directly integrable, a nonlinear flexibility method (in the spirit of those presented in the literature) can be derived without appeal to variational principles. The method does not involve interpolation of the displacement field and the accuracy of the method is limited only by the numerical scheme used to perform element integrals. There is no need for refinement to improve accuracy. Further, we show that this nonlinear flexibility method is essentially identical, with some subtle algorithmic differences, to a two-field (Hellinger-Reissner) variational principle when the stress interpolation is exact (which is possible for this class of problems). We demonstrate the utility of the nonlinear flexibility method by applying it to a problem involving cyclic inelastic loading wherein the strain fields evolve into functions that are difficult to capture through interpolation.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The research reported herein was supported by the Department of Energy through the Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsor.
References
Ciampi, V., and Carlesimo, L. (1986). “A nonlinear beam element for seismic analysis of structures.” Proc. 8th Eur. Conf. on Earthquake Engineering, Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil, Lisbon, Portugal.
Hjelmstad, K. D., and Taciroglu, E. (2002). “Mixed methods and flexibility approaches to Bernoulli-Euler beam finite elements.” J. Constr. Steel Res., 58, 967–993.
Hjelmstad, K. D., and Taciroglu, E. (2003). “Mixed variational methods for finite element analysis of geometrically nonlinear, inelastic Bernoulli-Euler beams.” Commun. Numer. Methods Eng., 19, 809–832.
Neuenhofer, A., and Filippou, F. C. (1997). “Evaluation of nonlinear frame finite-element models.” J. Struct. Eng., 123(7), 958–966.
Neuenhofer, A., and Filippou, F. C. (1998). “Geometrically nonlinear flexibility-based frame finite element.” J. Struct. Eng., 124(6), 704–711.
Petrangeli, M., and Ciampi, V. (1997). “Equilibrium based iterative solutions for the non-linear beam problem.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng., 40, 423–437.
Spacone, E., Ciampi, V., and Filippou, F. C. (1996a). “Mixed formulation of nonlinear beam finite element.” Comput. Struct., 58, 71–83.
Spacone, E., Filippou, F. C., and Taucer, F. F. (1996b). “Fibre beam-column model for nonlinear analysis of R/C frames: Formulation.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 25, 711–725.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 19, 2002
Accepted: Apr 18, 2005
Published online: Nov 1, 2005
Published in print: Nov 2005
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Ross Barry Corotis
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.