A VARIATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR SOLUTION METHOD DEVELOPMENTS IN STRUCTURAL MECHANICS

We present a variational framework for the development of partitioned solution algorithms in structural mechanics. This framework is obtaine d by decomposing the discrete virtual work of an assembled structure i nto that of partitioned substructures in terms of partitioned substruc tural deformations, substructural rigid-body displacements and interfa ce forces on substructural partition boundaries. New aspects of the fo rmulation are: the explicit use of substructural rigid-body mode ampli tudes as independent variables and direct construction of rank-suffici ent interface compatibility conditions. The resulting discrete variati onal functional is shown to be variationally complete, thus yielding a full-rank solution matrix. Four specializations of the present framew ork are discussed. Two of them have been successfully applied to paral lel solution methods and to system identification. The potential of th e two untested specializations as briefly discussed.