Abstract
In literature, there are many methods proposed for structural analysis based on discrete element formulations, mainly for nonlinear problems. One of these new methods is the Fibre Contact Element Method (FCEM). Many of these methods have been used for structural dynamic analysis problems. However, there are some questions about their precision in capturing the dynamic elastic response of structures when comparing to methods based on continuous models, like the well known Finite Element Method (FEM). For this reason, the results obtained with FCEM were extensively compared with FEM results and with laboratorial tests, to better understand the performance of this new method in capturing the elastic dynamic response of structures. Results indicate that this kind of discrete methods are able to determine the vibration modes of a structure with equal or better precision level than the obtained with FEM. FCEM was also used to capture the dynamic response of a reinforced concrete frame with infill walls, as a way to show the method capabilities in reproducing the dynamic behaviour of structures that have an almost continuous mass distribution.
Highlights
Over the last years, several methods involving discrete models have been proposed for modelling very complex dynamic systems as an alternative to the more traditional methods, which are based on continuous models.The Finite Element Method (FEM) is one of the most popular method that uses continuous structural models, with a good accuracy when comparing with in situ dynamic measures (Paeglite et al 2015)
Natural frequencies were determined by observing the peaks of the Average Normalized Power Spectral Density (ANPSD) graphical chart, which results from the power spectral density functions obtained from the experimental dynamic tests (Felber 1993)
reinforced concrete beam (RC) frame with infill walls models adopted for the dynamic analysis carried out with FEM and Fibre Contact Element Method (FCEM) methods
Summary
Several methods involving discrete models have been proposed for modelling very complex dynamic systems as an alternative to the more traditional methods, which are based on continuous models. Unlike continuous approaches like FEM, the main challenge for DEM is to properly reproduce the behaviour of continuous structures, namely in the elastic domain To overcome this problem, many hybrid methods have been proposed that combines DEM and FEM characteristics, mainly using discrete models to only capture material fracture (Azevedo, Lemos 2006; Smoljanović et al 2013; Carmona et al 2014; Tatone, Grasselli 2015). Many hybrid methods have been proposed that combines DEM and FEM characteristics, mainly using discrete models to only capture material fracture (Azevedo, Lemos 2006; Smoljanović et al 2013; Carmona et al 2014; Tatone, Grasselli 2015) In this context, a new method was developed based on a discrete element formulation, which was named Fibre Contact Element Method (FCEM), and implemented in a computer program named FIBERBLOC2D (Estêvão 2012). Once the stiffness and mass global matrices are obtained, the natural frequencies and vibration mode shape configurations are obtained through an inverse iteration scheme (Clough, Penzien 1993), which was implemented in FIBERBLOC2D
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