TRANSIENT ANALYSIS OF GEOMETRICALLY LINEAR AND NONLINEAR STRUCTURES BY A COMBINED FINITE-ELEMENT RICCATI-TRANSFER SUBSTRUCTURE METHOD

The combined finite-element-Riccati-transfer substructure method is ap plied to the transient analysis of the structures under various excita tions with small and large displacements, respectively. The advantages include reductions in the order of standard transfer equation systems , in the computational efforts, and in the propagation of round-off er rors produced in recursive multiplications of the transfer matrices. M eanwhile, a methodology for analysing transfer substructures is, in co mbination with exact dynamic condensation and generalized Riccati tran sformation, proposed to develop the finite element and transfer matrix (FETM) techniques. The Newmark method and Wilson-theta method are use d for time integrations with respect to linear and non-linear problems . The modified Newton Raphson method is employed for equilibrium itera tion in each time step. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrat e the high efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method for the tran sient responses of plates. The results from these examples agree well with those obtained by other methods.