Geometrically nonlinear analysis of circulant structures using an efficient eigensolution method

Abstract

In this paper, an efficient method is presented for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of circulant structures. A structure is called regular if its model can be formed as the product of two subgraphs, and if one of the subgraphs is a cycle then it is termed circulant. In the present method, we deal with the eigensolution of circulant structures by simply finding the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the blocks of the stiffness matrix rather than those of the entire structural matrix, leading to a considerable reduction in the computational time. The developed method utilizes concepts from product graphs and linear algebra for the nonlinear analysis of structures. Graph products are used to perform the eigensolution of circulant structures through those of its constituting subgraphs. Here, using the existing numerical methods, nonlinear static and dynamic analyses can be performed. In the presented method instead of solving the characteristic equation in each iteration of each step, the eigensolution of the structure is obtained using the eigensolution of the primary structure (the structure of the first iteration of the first step) together with some simple mathematical operations. In the present method instead of heavy matrix operations such as inverting a matrix and solution of the corresponding equations, one needs only to perform simple matrix multiplications and additions. The advantage of the presented method becomes more apparent when it is applied to the nonlinear analysis of a structure, where analysis should be performed many times.