CIVL 7970-FALL 2019

FINITE ELEMENT
METHODS II
ASSIGNMENT #6

Pablo Esteban Hurtado Ojeda

peh0023@auburn.edu
09-09-2019
1 LANCZOS ALGORITHM
Cornelius Lanczos developed this algorithm and it is a procedure to find the most useful eigenvalues and
eigenvectors of a 𝑛 𝑥 𝑛 Hermitian Matrix. The algorithm is also known as Lanczos recursion or Lanczos
tridiagonalization.
This algorithm is based on the concepts of Krylov subspaces, orthogonal projections of matrices and Ritz
vector.
2 Eigenvalue Extraction methods in ANSYS
 QR Damped Method
 Powerdynamics Method
 Subspace Method
 Reduced Method
 Unsymmetric Method
3 Discuss the factors involved in choosing one eigenvalue extraction method over the others.
Generally, the most used method is the Block Lanczos, which is the default extraction method in ANSYS
because of the time used. This method is used for large systems using modal analysis. If the model is small
is better to use the subspace method, but if the model gets bigger, it is recommended to use Lanczos.
If a model consist most in solid elements, the subspace method combined with the Conjugate Gradient Solver
would be the most efficient method. In ANSYS this method is called Powerdynamics Method.
ANSYS has numerous mathods depending on the model configuration. If the system is damped or undamped
it has different approaches to get the mode shapes and eigenvalues. Most of this methods are based on
Lanczos or subspace methods in some point of the calculations.
4 References
Erke Wang, Thomas Nelson. "structural dynamic capabilities of ANSYS." ANSYS 2002 Conference,
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. 2002.

Kim, Jong Joo.”Block Lanczos Algorithm”. Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive, DSpace Repository.
Monterrey, California, USA. 1989.