LARGE DISPLACEMENT TRANSIENT ANALYSIS OF FLEXIBLE STRUCTURES

A new approach for numerical analysis of flexible space frames subject ed to impact forces is presented. The method is particularly effective in the analysis of large-amplitude vibration and dynamic stability fo und in extremely flexible structures. The proposed method of analysis is based on a concept of updated material frame, which allows the algo rithm of handling large rotations exceeding 360-degrees and extensions longer than 100 per cent without numerical difficulty and the need fo r iterations. Thus, an efficient explicit integration finite element a lgorithm can be adopted. The method is convenient for non-linear and i nelastic material models. The basic coding procedure is similar to the popular co-rotational approach. Existing codes can be easily modified to solve transient dynamic problems. The modification steps necessary for the implementation are outlined in the paper.Several numerical ex amples are presented. Comparison with the standard co-rotational appro ach and large deformation finite element formulations, such as the upd ated Lagrangian approach, are presented.