Analysis of symmetric or partially symmetric structures

Abstract

This paper combines group-theoretic methods with substructuring techniques to treat the symmetric or partially symmetric structures subjected to arbitrary loads. First, for a given substructure module, whose symmetry group is G , it gives a method to find the generalized displacements associated with irreducible representations of G based on some concepts presented in this paper, and then points out that for these displacements the analysis problem for a substructure module can be divided into a series of uncoupled subproblems. For each subproblem the triangularization as well as condensation can be carried out individually. Finally a simplified calculation formula of condensed stiffness coefficients for the original displacements is established, in which only the coefficients relating to the displacements in the basic region are necessary to be calculated. A series of computer programs has been developed by the methods presented in this paper [1–4]. These programs enable us to reduce the CPU time and save the memory noticeably.