CDMAS Calculation, Design, Modeling, Analysis and Simulation 1

4. Solution
It is presumed that the students reading this project have taken finite element method course and have understood the fundamental concept of this numerical method. Therefore it is not provided here.
4.1 MATLAB Computation

Discretizing the domain We subdivide the structure into ten elements and 10 nodes as shown in the Figure 2.

Figure 1 Discretizied Model Element type Members in a frame structure are considered to be rigidly connected so that both forces and moments can be transmitted through their joints. So we need the general beam element to model the frame structure. This element is a two dimensional finite element with both local and global coordinates. It has modulus of elasticity E, moment of inertia I, cross-sectional area A, and length L. Each element has two nodes and is inclined with an angle measured counterclockwise from the positive global x axis as show in Fig. 3 and 4. It has six degree of freedom three at each node (two displacements and a rotation).

CDMAS at http://cdmas.webplus.net/frameanalysis.html

CDMAS Calculation, Design, Modeling, Analysis and Simulation 2

Figure 2 Element Transformation Computing Equivalent Nodal Loads (coming soon)

Figure 3 Coordinate System

CDMAS at http://cdmas.webplus.net/frameanalysis.html