On the Solution of the Numerical Simultaneous Equations Arising in the Analysis of Redundant Structures

Abstract

The application of strain energy or slope-deflection methods in the analysis of redundant structures leads to a number of simultaneous linear equations with numerical coefficients; the equations may be obtained in such order that each successive equation contains one new unknown, until all the unknowns are so included. This is the only condition essential for the method to be described in the present paper, but the labour is much reduced in slope-deflection and strain energy applications by the fact that most (or all) of the equations contain very few of the unknowns. The method to be given reduces the solving of these equations to a column of successive evaluations, followed by the solution, by algebraic methods, of a small number of simultaneous equations; and a final column of evaluations. In the remaining paragraphs a number of problems are examined to show how the equations may be obtained in suitable sequence for the method to apply. Following an application to the determination of secondary stresses, the operations involved in the moment-distribution method and in this method are compared. A numerical example is worked out in the simple case of §2, and it is shown how any order of mathematical accuracy in the roots may be ensured, provided that sufficient figures have been retained to permit that accuracy.