An Adaptative Strategy for the Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis of Structures

Abstract

This work presents the development of an adaptative time integration procedure for the nonlinear dynamic analysis of large-scale structural systems. The adaptive algorithm performs the following tasks: a) Automaticd time step adjustment: the time step may vary during the analysis, according to the modal composition of the dynamic response and to the nonlinear behavior of the structural system; b) Automatic determination of stiffness reevaluations, in order to minimize the costs related to the calculation of element matrices, and assembling and decomposition of global matrices. An application on the nonlinear dynamic analysis of a compliant guyed tower for deepwater oil exploration and production is presented, and the positive characteristics of the resultant computational system in terms of efficiency, roboustness, user-friendliness and qualiry of the response are evaluated.