Chapter 23 The Transient Dynamic Analysis_____________________________________

230
CHAPTER 23


THE TRANSIENT DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

The transient dynamic analysis is used in civil engineering to determine the
time-varying displacements, strains, stresses and forces of a structure during
time-dependent loads, as earthquake or wind. Furthermore, when nonlinear
material properties are associated to the model, the process highlights the
regions where the linear-elastic behavior is exceeded (for frame structures,
the birth of so called plastic hinges) and also the order in which these
nonlinear regions appear over the model. When exceeding the linear-elastic
behavior, the amount of residual strains reveals the quantity of energy
dissipated during the plastic deformation.

The transient dynamic analysis requires generally more computer resources
because, at least, it is equivalent to a multi-step static analysis. Three
solution methods are usually available: the full method, the reduced method
and the mode superposition method. Each one has its own advantage,
according to the analysis aims, computing time and the required
preprocessing work.

The transient dynamic equilibrium equation is the equation of motion

) (t
a
F K C M = + +
& & &
(23.1)
where

M, C and K are the mass, damping and stiffness matrices;

& &
is the nodal acceleration vector,
&
the nodal velocity vector and
the displacement vector;
) (t
a
F is the applied load vector.

The procedure used for solving the linear equation is the time integration
method (the Newmark method). It uses finite differences expansions over
the time interval t, in which the following relationships are assumed:

( ) | | t a a
n n n n
+ + =
+ + 1 1
1
& & & & & &
(23.2)

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231
2
1 1
2
1
t b b t
n n n n n

(

+
|
.
|

\
|
+ + =
+ +

& & & & &
(23.3)
where

a, b are the Newmark integration parameters

n n
t t t =
+1


n

& &
,
n

&
,
n
are the nodal acceleration, velocity and displacement
vectors at time
n
t

1 + n

& &
,
1 + n

&
,
1 + n
are the nodal acceleration, velocity and
displacement vectors at time
1 + n
t

Since the first intend is to calculate the displacement
1 + n
and the seismic
load is usually applied as ground acceleration d
& &
, the governing equation at
time
1 + n
t is:

1 1 1 1 + + + +
= + +
n n n n
d M K C M
& & & & &
(23.4)

Rearranging the equations (23.4), using some notations:

( )
n n n n n
a a a
& & & & &
3 2 1 0 1
=
+ +

1 7 6 1 + +
+ + =
n n n n
a a
& & & & & &

(23.5)
2 0
1
t b
a

= ;
t b
a
a

=
1
;
t b
a

=
1
2
; 1
2
1
3
=
b
a ; 1
4
=
b
a
a ;
|
.
|

\
|

= 2
2
5
b
a t
a ; ( ) a t a = 1
6
; t a a =
7


and substituting
1 + n

& &
, the general form becomes:

( ) = + +
+1 1 0 n
a a K C M

( ) ( )
n n n n n n n
a a a a a a C d M
& & & & & & & &
5 4 1 3 2 0 1
+ + + + + + =
+
(23.6)


Chapter 23 The Transient Dynamic Analysis_____________________________________


232
Once the solution is obtained for
1 + n
, the accelerations and the velocities
are updated with the equations (23.5). The solution is unconditionally stable
for
2
2
1
4
1
|
.
|

\
|
+ a b ;
2
1
a and 0
2
1
> + + b a *. The Newmark method
becomes the constant average acceleration method for
2
1
= a and
4
1
= b .

23.1 The stiffness matrix

The procedures to calculate the global stiffness matrix of the structure were
already described in the case of static analyses. The same procedures are
available for transient dynamic analyses. As before, the stiffness matrix is a
matrix of constants in which the geometrical characteristics and the material
properties E
d
and (the dynamic Youngs modulus and the Poissons ratio)
are involved. It is common to assign different values for the Youngs
modulus in dynamic analyses as for static analyses.

23.2 The mass matrix

The mass matrix assessment is explained in chapter 22. The procedure is
also available for the transient dynamic analysis.

23.3 The damping matrix

The damping matrix of a finite element is expressed in terms of a damping
force which is proportional with its mass and also in terms of the
deformation velocity. The first dependence is expressed by the parameter
as a force vector in the integral expression of the functional, while the
second one corresponds to a stress vector &
d d
E = which is due to
elements stiffness. In a general form, the element damping matrix is:

( )dV
Ve
d
T T
e

+ = B E B N N c (23.7)

The total damping matrix of the structure C is obtained following the same
assembling procedures as for the global stiffness matrix.

* Zienkiewicz, O. C.- The Finite Elements Method, Mc Graw Hill, 1979

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233
Using the notations = and E E
d
= the general form of the Rayleigh
damping model outcomes:

K M C + = (23.8)

where and are scalar multipliers.

The values of and are generally not known directly, but are calculated
from the modal damping ratios
i
, which are the ratios of actual damping to
critical damping for each vibration mode i. If
i
is the natural circular
frequency of mode i, and satisfy the relation:

2 2
i
i
i

+ = (23.9)

In practical structural problems the mass damping may be ignored ( = 0).

Because only one value of can be prescribed during a load step, the
dominant frequency should be chosen. When using both and multipliers,
it is commonly assumed that the sum of their terms are nearly constant over
a frequency range. Therefore, knowing the damping ratio and a circular
frequency range
i
to
j
, two simultaneous equations can be solved for
and .

A more complete expression of the damping matrix takes into account the
damping properties assigned to materials and the element damping matrices
available for some elements in the element library:


= =
+ + + =
nelem
k
k j
nmat
j
j

1 1
C K K M C (23.10)

where
j
is the stiffness matrix multiplayer for material j, K
j
the structures
region with assigned material j, nmat the number of materials with damping
properties, C
k
the element damping matrices and nelem the number of
elements with specified damping.

Chapter 23 The Transient Dynamic Analysis_____________________________________


234
23.4 Transient dynamic solution methods

The most applied solution methods for solving equation (23.6) are the full
solution method, the reduced solution method and the mode superposition
method.

The full solution method solves the equation directly without any additional
assumptions. The initial (or start) values of
0
,
0

&
,
0

& &
must be known. If
non-zero initial conditions are required, they are assigned by performing a
static analysis load step.

The initial displacements are:

if there is no previous load step
displacement vector from the static load step
The initial velocities are:
in the case of an initial static load case; t is the time
increment
otherwise
The initial acceleration is
0

& &
= 0.

The total force applied on each node is computed as a sum of inertia,
damping and static loads over all elements connected at that location. The
element inertia load is computed by
e e
m
e

& &
M F = , where
e
M is the element
mass matrix and
e

& &
the element acceleration vector. While the acceleration
of each nodal DOF is given by equation (23.3) for time
1 + n
t ,
e

& &
is an
average acceleration between
1 + n
t and
n
t , since it is assumed that the
average acceleration is the true one.

The damping load part of the element is computed by
e e
c
e

&
C F = , where
e
C is the element damping matrix and
e

&
the element vector velocity, given
by equation (23.5).

=
s

0
0

=
0
t
s

0
&

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235
The nodal reaction loads are computed as the negative of the sum of inertia,
damping and static effects over all elements which are connected to a given
fixed displacement node.

A faster solution can be obtained applying the reduced method. In the
general motion equation (23.4) the characteristic matrices M, C and K are
computed considering two main assumptions:

- only a selected set of master DOF are taking into account (the DOF
considered essential to characterize the response of the structure);
- the matrices are constant during the loading time interval, thus
nonlinear effects are suppressed (plasticity, large deflections, etc).

Supplementary assumptions as a constant time step size and the use of only
concentrated loads applied on master DOF are also considered.

The reduced motion equation system yields:

( ) = + +
+1 1 0 n
a a K C M
) ) ) )

( ) ( )
n n n n n n n
a a a a a a C d M
)
& &
)
&
) )
)
& &
)
&
)
)
& &
)
5 4 1 3 2 0 1
+ + + + + + =
+
(23.11)

where the ^ symbol denotes the reduced matrices and vectors.

The reduced solution is obtained by inverting the left-hand side of the
equation and performing a matrix multiplication at each time step. The full
solution is computed by expanding the reduced solution to the other DOF of
the model, which are called slave DOF. Once the expansion pass is done by
computing all nodal displacements, the elements stresses are evaluated.

The mode superposition method sums factored mode shapes obtained from a
modal analysis to calculate the dynamic response. The mass and stiffness
matrices are constant during the analysis, as well as the time step size. The
element damping matrices are neglected.

The equations of motion may be expressed as:

s nd
sF F K C M + = + +
& & &
(23.12)

Chapter 23 The Transient Dynamic Analysis_____________________________________


236
where
nd
F are the time varying nodal forces (which can be also expressed
as
nd
d M
& &
when inertia forces),
s
F the load vector from the modal analysis
and s a load scale factor.

The displacement vector is defined in terms of modal coordinates y
i
, so that:

=
=
n
i
i i
1
y (23.13)

where
i
is the mode shape of mode i and n the number of mode shapes
taking into account. By substituting into (23.12):

s nd
n
i
i i
n
i
i i
n
i
i i
sF F y K y C y M + = + +

= = = 1 1 1
& & & (23.14)

Multiplying with
T
j
and applying the orthogonality conditions of the
natural mode shapes (22.6), the outcome is:

( )
s nd T
j j j
T
j j j
T
j j j
T
j
sF F y K y C y M + = + + & & &
(23.15)

The coefficients of this equation are substituted as follows:
- according to the normality condition 1 =
j
T
j
M ;
- it can be demonstrated that
i i j
T
j
2 = C , where
i
is the
fraction of critical damping and
i
the natural circular frequency of
mode j;
- the third term is
2 2
j j
T
j j j
T
j
= = M K ;
- the right-hand side term is conveniently noted as f
j
.

The motion equation system in modal coordinates yields:

j j j j j j j
f y y y = + +
2
2 & & & (23.16)


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237
Since j is an arbitrary mode, the previous system represents a set of n
uncoupled equations with the n unknowns y
j
. Using relationship (23.13), the
modal coordinates are back-converted into geometric displacements . If the
initial modal analysis is performed on a reduced model (using only master
DOF) the matrices and load vectors would be expressed in terms of these
DOF. In this case an expansion pass is necessary to compute the
displacements of the slave DOF.

23.5 Practical aspects of performing a transient dynamic analysis

Since the solution of equation (23.4) depends on the external excitation,
represented by the ground acceleration

d (variable in time), the acceleration
vector has to be expressed as a constant value for each time step. Thus, a
continuous acceleration recording (or an artificial one) has to be transformed
into a set of discrete values, according to the total duration of the dynamic
load and the chosen time step, t. Figure 23.1 represents the discretization
of a recorded accelerogram lasting 0.5 seconds into 10 equal intervals, the
constant values corresponding to each time step being listed below.

Time step 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
a (m/s
2
) 0 1 3 2 0 -2 -1 0 2 1 3

Fig. 23.1 Discretization of an accelerogram

Regarding the response acceleration of the structure, it can be assumed to be
constant or with a linear variation over the time step. If the acceleration is
constant, the response velocities have a linear variation over the load step
0
1
2
3
-1
-2
0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 0,25 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,35 0,45 s
) (
2
s m a
t t
t t

Chapter 23 The Transient Dynamic Analysis_____________________________________


238
and the response displacements is a quadratic one (see figure 23.2). The
initial conditions may be chosen as:

t = 0
0
= 0
.
=
..
0




Fig. 23.2 Acceleration, velocity and displacement evolutions over the time step

The time step size t should be chosen small enough for acquiring an
acceptable numerical precision and to avoid numerical instabilities. The
precision of the numerical integration is essentially related to the time step
size. The main factors that should be taken into account are:

- the magnitude of the lowest natural vibration period which is
significant for the structural response; the time step size should not
exceed 1/10 of its value, in order to achieve a good representation of
the corresponding mode shape;
Constant accelerations
Linear velocities
Quadratic displacements
t

t

&

t

& &

t t +

t t +

&

t t +

& &

t
( )
t t t +
+ =

& & & & & &
2
1
) (

t t t t + = +
) (

& &
. .

t t t t + = +
) (

& &
. .

t+t

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239
- the dominant period of the dynamic load; a good approximation of
the external impulse is reached by considering 5 to 10 time steps
during a half-wave of the excitation.

23.6 Concluding remarks

The transient dynamic analysis has obvious advantages concerning the
modeling of structures subjected to dynamic loads. First of all, the results
database file contains data corresponding to each time step. Thus, a time-
history postprocessor can be used to represent the evolution of various
parameters (displacements, stresses, etc) in each moment during the analysis
extent. Moreover, there are no constrains regarding the materials behavior,
for instance material nonlinearities which can arise and develop in various
regions of the model (such as the so called plastic hinges over the frame
structures).

The main disadvantages of the method are related to the following matters:

The transient dynamic analysis is time and resource consuming.
Each load (time) step starts with initial conditions corresponding to the end
of the previous one, the characteristic vectors and matrices being assessed
repetitively. The number of load (time) steps should be large enough to
emphasize the structural behavior and to take into account the total duration
of the dynamic load. It is a matter of engineering judgment to select an
appropriate time interval for the analysis, in order to confine the computing
time and the necessary memory for results storage.

The dynamic load is usually a recorded or artificially generated
accelerogram, thus the dynamic response of the structure depends on these
prescribed values. Unfortunately, speaking about seismic design, no
earthquake is identical with another one (even in the same location), nor
with an artificially generated dynamic load. The recordings are very well
fitted for verification analyses, but it is of utmost importance to choose the
appropriate ones for the design purpose.