CIV 6130 C OMPUTATIONAL S TRUCTURAL A NALYSIS

D EP. C IVIL AND S TRUCTURAL E NGINEERING U NIV. OF S HEFFIELD

Tutorial Sheet 6: stability of explicit time integration

Consider the one-dimensional bar shown in Figure 1. The bar consists of four linear elements, each of which has a length of 0.25 m. The Youngs modulus E = 1 N/m2 and the
mass density = 1 kg/m3 . The force F has a value 1 N and is applied from time t = 0 s
onwards.

F
Figure 1: Explicit dynamics analysis of one-dimensional bar

1. Write down the stiffness matrix and the lumped mass matrix for a single element.
2. Write down the assembled stiffness matrix and lumped mass matrix.
3. Write down the equations of motion.
4. No support conditions have been specified for the system in Figure 1. Does this lead
to an unsolvable set of equations (as it would in statics)?
5. Show that the critical time step equals tcrit = 0.25 s in this example.
6. Use explicit time integration with a sub-critical time step t = 0.2 s. Show that the
following quantities are obtained:

0.32
1.6
8

0
0
0

0
0
0
{d}
=
{v}
{a}0 =
1 t =
t

0
0
0
0
0
0
7. Show that in the next two time steps the following results are obtained:

2.24
0.55
1.15
5.12
0.20
1.02

0
0
0
{v} 3 t =
{a}t =
{d}2t =

0
0
0
0
0
0

(turn over)

{a}2t

3.06
2.25
3.28
0
0

{v} 5 t
2

0.54
1.47
0.65
0
0

{d}3t

0.66
0.50
0.13
0
0

8. Next, a super-critical time step t = 0.3 s is used. Show that the following displacement vectors are obtained:

2.91
0.0864
0.72
0.78
1.037

{d}3t =
0
{d}2t =
0
{d}t =
1.49

0
0
0
0
0
0
Do these results seem reasonable? If not, why not?