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To cite this article: ShuennYih Chang (2004) Studies of Newmark method for solving nonlinear systems: (I) basic analysis,
Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, 27:5, 651-662, DOI: 10.1080/02533839.2004.9670913
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Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 651-662 (2004) 651
Shuenn-Yih Chang
ABSTRACT
The performance of the Newmark method in the solution of linear elastic sys-
tems can be reliably predicted by the currently available evaluation techniques.
However, its performance for solving nonlinear systems is still not clear. Therefore,
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its numerical characteristics in the solution of nonlinear systems are explored in this
study by using a newly developed technique. Only a specific implementation of the
Newmark method is studied in this paper although there are several possible imple-
mentations for this integration method. It seems numerical properties of the Newmark
method in the solution of linear elastic and nonlinear systems can be entirely captured
by the newly developed technique. Although this technique is only aimed at a spe-
cific time step, it is still indicative for the whole step-by-step integration procedure
since this procedure consists of each time step.
Ma i+1+Cv i+1+Kd i+1=f i+1 (i+1)-th time step. Similarly, k i+1 is used to denote
the stiffness at the end of (i+1)-th time step or at the
di+1=d i +( ∆ t)v i+( ∆ t) 2[( 1 − β )a i+ β a i+1] beginning of the (i+2)-th time step. This implies that
2
the stiffness during the (i+1)-th time step is varied
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v i+1 =v i+( ∆ t)[(1− γ )a i+ γ a i+1] (2) from the beginning of k i to the end of k i+1.
Immediately following the end of the i-th time
where d i, v i and a i are approximations to u(t i), u (t i) step, computation details for the (i+1)-th time step
and u (t i ), respectively, and β and γ are specified co- are described next. The first step is to find the dis-
efficients which govern the stability, accuracy and nu- placement for the next time step. In fact, using the
merical dissipation of the integration method. To obtain second line of Eq. (3), the acceleration a i+1 can be
the basic properties, it is convenient to consider the rewritten as a function of d i+1. Meanwhile, the ve-
single degree of freedom analogue of Eq. (2) locity vi+1 can be expressed in terms of d i+1 after sub-
stituting the obtained a i+1 into the third line of Eq.
ma i+1+cv i+1+kd i+1=f i+1 (3). As a result, the displacement di+1 can be obtained
after the substitutions of the derived vi+1 and ai+1 into
di+1=d i +( ∆ t)v i+( ∆ t) 2[( 1 − β )a i+ β a i+1] the first line of Eq. (3) and are found to be
2
v i+1 =v i+( ∆ t)[(1− γ )a i+ γ a i+1] (3) [ 1 m + γ c + k ]d
β(∆t) 2 β(∆t) i i+1
w h e r e d i, v i a n d a i a r e a p p r o x i m a t i o n s o f
= fi + 1 + [ m 2 ][d i + (∆t)vi + ( 1 – β)(∆t) 2a i]
displacement, velocity and acceleration at the i-th β(∆t) 2
time step; m, c and k are the mass, viscous damping
γ
and stiffness. – c[vi + (1 – γ )(∆t)a i] + c[ ][d + (∆t)vi
β(∆t) i
The coefficients for the four well-known mem-
bers of Newmark method (Newmark, 1959), which + ( 1 – β)(∆t) 2a i] (4)
are the Newmark explicit method, Fox-Goodwin 2
method, linear acceleration method and constant av- In this equation, it is important to note that the stiff-
erage acceleration method, are summarized in Table ness at the end of the i-th time step ki is used to deter-
1 for the subsequent discussions and comparisons. In mine the displacement d i+1 for the (i+1)-th time step.
addition, their stability limits for linear elastic sys- Next, the restoring force r i+1 corresponding to this
tems are also listed for comparison. In this table, the displacement can be computed by an assumed mate-
relationship Ω = ω ( ∆ t) is defined and ω = k/m is the rial model, which mathematically describes a stress-
natural frequency of the system. strain relation or a load-displacement relation. In
general, the load-displacement relation for the (i+1)-
III. AN IMPLEMENTATION OF NEWMARK th time step can be expressed as r i+1=k i+1d i+1 where
METHOD ki+1 is the stiffness at the end of the (i+1)-th time step.
After updating the stiffness k i+1 , the velocity can be
In order to evaluate the numerical properties of computed based on the new determined stiffness k i+1
Newmark method in the solution of a nonlinear system, and are found to be
the step-by-step integration details within a time step
are described and then are realistically reflected in vi + 1 = {[ 1 ]m + c} – 1{ fi + 1 – k i + 1d i + 1
the proposed evaluation procedure. In the following γ (∆t)
derivations, ki is used to represent the stiffness at the
+ [ m ][vi + (1 – γ )(∆t)a i]} (5)
end of the i-th time step or at the beginning of the γ (∆t)
S. Y. Chang: Studies of Newmark Method for Solving Nonlinear Systems: (I) Basic Analysis 653
Finally, the acceleration can be computed by Obviously, there is no stiffness change for µi+1=1 dur-
ing the (i+1)-th time step. Meanwhile, the case of
1 )( f – cv – k d )
ai + 1 = ( m (6) µi+1>1 simulates the stiffness hardening, and the stiff-
i+1 i+1 i+1 i+1
ness softening can be mimicked by 0< µ i+1<1. Thus,
In this computing procedure, the stiffness k i is used µi+1 can be considered as a measure of the degree of
to determine the displacement d i+1 while the velocity nonlinearity for the (i+1)-th time step. In general,
and acceleration are computed by using the stiffness for µ i+1>1 the larger µi+1 is, the higher the degree of
ki+1. This reveals that the use of different stiffnesses hardening nonlinearity is while for 0< µ i+1 <1 the
to compute the displacement, velocity and accelera- smaller µ i+1 is, the higher the degree of softening
tion are the major differences between the linear elas- nonlinearity is.
tic and nonlinear systems. After defining the degree of the nonlinearity µi+1
for the (i+1)-th time step, the integration procedure
IV. ANALYSIS as shown in Eq. (4) to Eq. (6) can be rewritten in a
matrix form (Bathe and Wilson, 1973; Belytschko and
It is often found that for a nonlinear system the Hughes, 1983) as
stiffness is k i at the beginning of the (i+1)-th time
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step while it becomes k i+1 at the end of this time step. X i+1=A i+1X i+Li+1f i+1 (8)
Since k i+1 is generally different from k i for a nonlin-
ear system, a new parameter µ i+1 is used to describe where X i =[d i, ( ∆ t)v i , ( ∆ t) 2a i ] T; A i+1 is the amplifica-
the change of the stiffness during the (i+1)-th time tion matrix and L i+1 is the load vector for the (i+1)-th
step. For this purpose, the degree of nonlinearity µi+1 time step. In this study, the viscous damping is as-
is defined as the ratio of k i+1 over k i sumed to be zero in order to simplify the algebraic
manipulations. The explicit expression of the matrix
k i+1 = µ i+1k i (7) Ai+1 is
1 1 1 –β
2
Ai + 1 = 1 – µ i + 1γΩi2 1 + (β – µ i + 1γ )Ωi2 (1 – γ )(1 + βΩi2) – ( 1 – β)(µ i + 1γΩi2) (9)
1 + βΩi2 2
– µ i + 1Ωi2 – µ i + 1Ωi2 – ( 1 – β)µ i + 1Ωi2
2
where Ω i = ω i ( ∆ t); and ω i = k i / m is the natural fre- method, such as the local truncation error,
quency of the system determined from the structural consistency, stability, accuracy and overshoot, can be
properties at the end of the i-th time step. The three further evaluated for both linear and nonlinear
eigenvalues of the amplification matrix A i+1 can be systems.
found from the characteristic equation (Belytschko
and Hughes, 1983) 1. Local Truncation Error and Order of Accuracy
det (Ai+1− λ I)= λ 3−A 1λ 2+A 2λ −A 3 =0 (10) Since the object of numerical integration is to
determine sufficiently accurate approximations with
where minimum effort, a means to evaluate the efficiency
of various approximation methods is required. Local
2 + (β + µ i + 1β – µ i + 1γ – 1 µ i + 1)Ωi2
A1 = 2 truncation error can be used as a criterion for this
1 + βΩi2 purpose. The local truncation error is defined as the
error committed in each time step by replacing the
1 + µ i + 1(β – γ + 1 )Ωi2 differential equation by the difference equation
A2 = 2
1 + βΩi2 (Belytschko and Hughes, 1983). In general, the lo-
cal truncation error for the (i+1)-th time step can be
A 3=0 (11) expressed as
n
After solving the characteristic equation, numerical
properties of the (i+1)-th time step for the Newmark
Ei + 1 = Σ [H pu (p)(∆t) p – 2] + O[(∆t) p – 1]
p=0
(12)
654 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 27, No. 5 (2004)
where u(p) denotes the p-th derivative of the displace- Newmark method and thus the accuracy significantly
ment u with respect to time and the coefficient H p is deteriorates when compared to that for the solution
found to be of a linear system. However, consistency and non-
zero order of accuracy might be achieved if µ i+1 is
H 0 =1−A 1+A 2 close enough to 1. This is because the first and/or
second terms on the right hand side of Eq. (16) is
1 + ( – 1) p A 2 smaller than the subsequent term.
Hp = p=1, 2, 3, ... (13)
p!
The difference equation with local truncation error 2. Overshooting Effect
E i+1 ( ∆ t) is said to be consistent with the differential
equation if Goudreau and Taylor (1972) discovered a very
peculiar property of the Wilson θ method. Although
lim ( max E i + 1(∆t) ) = 0 (14) this method is unconditionally stable for linear systems,
∆t → 0 1 ≤ i + 1 ≤ N
numerical experiments showed a tendency to over-
shoot exact solutions significantly in the early response.
where N is the total number of integration time steps.
Therefore, the tendency to overshoot is an important
If E i+1=O[(∆t)q] where q>0, then q is named the order
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µi + 1 – 1 2 β – µ i + 1 (β – γ + 1 ) 1
Ei + 1 = ω u + 2 ωΩu di + 1 = {[1 + (β – 1 )Ωi2]d i + (∆t)vi}
1 + βΩi2
1
1 + βΩi2
i i 1 + βΩi2 2
1 – 1 [β + µ (β – γ + 1 )] vi + 1 = 1 { – {1 – γ + γµ i + 1 + [β(1 – γ )
+ 12 2 i+1 2 ω 2Ω 2u 1 + βΩi2
1 + βΩi2 i i
d
+ (β – 1 )γµ i + 1]Ωi2}Ωi2( i )
+ O[(∆t) ] 3
(16) 2 ∆t
d i + 1 ≈ (1 – 1 )d i
+ O[(∆t) 3] (17) 2β
d γ
This equation clearly shows that for µ i+1=1, the order vi + 1≈ [γ – 1 + ( 1 – 1)γµ i + 1]Ωi2( i ) + (1 – µ i + 1 )vi
2β ∆t β
of accuracy is one if γ ≠ 1 , two if γ = 1 and three if β=
2 2 (19)
1 in addition to the case of γ = 1 . Based on Eq. (14),
12 2
consistency cannot be achieved for any degree of The first line of this equation reveals that there is no
hardening or softening nonlinearity since µ i+1≠1. In overshoot in displacement for either linear or nonlin-
fact, the order of accuracy degenerates to 0 in the ear systems using the Newmark method. However,
solution of a nonlinear system for any member of the it has a tendency to overshoot quadratically in Ω i in
S. Y. Chang: Studies of Newmark Method for Solving Nonlinear Systems: (I) Basic Analysis 655
the velocity equation due to the displacement term It is found that the second inequality of this equation
(di/∆ t) for any degree of nonlinearity. It is worth not- will be satisfied only if the degree of nonlinearity µi+1
ing that the constant average acceleration method is is smaller than or equal to 1 for the case of γ = 1 and
the only member of the Newmark method that shows 2
β≠0 while for γ= 1 and β=0 the first inequality is not
no overshoot in velocity for linear elastic systems. 2
met for any µ i+1>0. Thus, in the sub-family of the
This is because β = 1 , γ = 1 and µ i+1 =1, (d i / ∆ t) in the
4 2 Newmark method with γ= 1 an unconditionally stable
second line of Eq. (19) disappears. However, the 2
overshooting in velocity is still present if it is used to algorithm may exist for solving softening or linear
solve a nonlinear system. systems but not for solving hardening systems.
There is a zero eigenvalue for the Newmark On the other hand, the conditional stability lim-
method since A 3 =0 in Eq. (12). Thus, this integra- its for the Newmark method can be also found from
tion method is spectrally stable (Belytschko and Hughes, Eq. (20) and are:
1983) if the other two eigenvalues of the amplifica-
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tion matrix Ai+1 satisfy the following two inequalitie µ i+1 (β − γ )+ β <0, µ i+1( β − γ + 1 )< β and
2
−(A 2+1)≤A 1≤(A 2+1) if −1≤A 2<1
0< Ω i≤ 2 (23)
−2<A 1 <2 if A 2=1 (20) µ i + 1 (γ – β ) – β
In this derivation, the two eigenvalues can be real or where the second inequality is met only if µ i+1<1 for
complex. Thus, the response is in a bounded oscilla- γ = 1 and β ≠0. This implies there is no conditionally
2
tory form or an exponential decay form. Although a stable method in the sub-family of γ = 1 and β ≠0 for
stable computation can be guaranteed by Eq. (20), it 2
the system with µi+1≥1. In fact, the Newmark explicit
is advisable to satisfy more stringent stability
conditions, which restricts the two eigenvalues to be method is the only method in the sub-family of γ = 1
2
complex conjugate, and thus a bounded oscillatory that can have conditional stability for any µi+1 and its
response is obtained. As a result, two complex con- stability limits are found to be 0<Ωi≤2/ µ i or 0<Ωi+1≤2.
jugates and |λ 1,2|≤1 leads to
(ii) Two Complex Conjugate Eigenvalues − Eq. (21)
A 21 −4A 2<0
(1) Unconditional stability
0<A 2 ≤1 (21)
Using the inequality of A 21 −4A2<0, the lower and
If any member of the Newmark method can satisfy
upper bounds of β are found to be:
the stability conditions either defined in Eq. (20) or
(21) for any value of Ω i then it possesses uncondi-
a ≤β if µ i+1=1
tional stability for the (i+1)-th time step. On the other
hand, if the stability conditions are met only for a
a≤ β≤b if µ i+1≠1 (24)
certain interval of Ω i then the integration method can
only have the conditional stability. To explore the
where
stability conditions of the Newmark method, Eqs. (20)
and (21) will be thoroughly studied next.
a = 1 (γ + 1 ) 2
4 2
(i) Two Real or Two Complex Eigenvalues − Eq. (20)
a= 1 {µ i + 1[µ i + 1(γ + 1 ) – γ + 3 ]
(1) Unconditional stability (1 – µ i + 1) 2 2 2
1 + µi + 1
γ ≤ 1( ) (26)
2 1 – µi + 1
2
β≥γ− 1 if 0< µ i+1<1 (27)
2
the increase of µ i+1 as γ > 1 . Besides, it is also found
2
where that the maximum value of µi+1 increases with the in-
µ crease of γ, which must be larger than 1 . For example,
c= γ − 1 and d = ( i + 1 )(γ – 1 ) (28) 2
2 µi + 1 – 1 2 as β = 1 and γ = 3 , the unconditional stability is
2 4
achieved only if 1< µ i ≤2 while for β = 5 and γ = 3 , it
As a further step, the conditions to have uncon- 4 2
ditional stability for the Newmark method can be sum- extends to be 1< µ i+1 ≤5. However, it will be shown
marized from Eqs. (24) and (27) and are later that a larger value of γ will lead to less accuracy
of numerical solution as γ ≥ 1 .
2
µi + 1 + 1 Conditions to have unconditional stability for
a≤ β ≤d, γ ≥ 1 and γ ≥ if µ i+1>1
2 4 µ i+1=1, as shown in the second line of Eq. (29), are
the same as those which have been derived for linear
a ≤ β and γ ≥ 1 if µ i+1=1 systems (Belytschko and Hughes, 1983). It is inter-
2
esting to study the unconditional stability conditions
1 + µi + 1
a≤ β ≤b and γ ≤ 1 ( ) if 0< µ i+1<1 (29) for stiffness softening, as shown in the third line of
2 1 – µi + 1 Eq. (29). In this line, the second inequality can be
In this equation, the inequality γ ≥(µi+1+1)/4 in the first used to obtain the results of ( γ − 1 )/( γ + 1 )≤ µ i+1<1 if
2 2
case of µ i+1>1 implies that the degree of nonlinearity γ > 1 and 0< µ i+1<1 if γ ≤ 1 . This implies that for any
2 2
µ i+1 must be smaller than or equal to 1 if γ = 1 . member of the Newmark method with γ > 1 , the un-
2 2
Obviously, this is contradictory to the assumption of conditional stability can be obtained only if the de-
µ i+1>1 for this case. Thus, it is concluded that any gree of softening nonlinearity is in the range of ( γ −
member of the Newmark method with γ = 1 cannot 1 )/(γ+ 1 )≤µ <1. However, for the Newmark method
i+1
2 2 2
possess the desired unconditional stability for any with γ ≤ 1 , it can be achieved for any degree of soft-
2
degree of hardening nonlinearity. ening nonlinearity. These results can be seen in Fig.
To see the variations of a and d with respect to 2 where the variations of a and b with respect to µi+1
µi+1 for a given value of γ , the first line of Eq. (29) is
for γ=− 1 , 0, 1 , 1 and 3 are depicted. In addition, for
plotted in Fig. 1. The line with an arrow denotes the 2 2 2
a given value of γ , the possible range of β to have
possible range of β, which is 1 ≤β <∞, to have uncon-
4 unconditional stability for stiffness softening in-
ditional stability for µ i+1 =1 as γ = 1 . In addition, the creases with increasing µ i+1. In general, the higher
2
solid circles represent the lower bounds of β as µi+1=1 the degree of softening nonlinearity is, the smaller
for the cases of γ = 1 , 3 , 1, 5 and 3 ; and their corre- the range of β for a given value of γ is.
2 4 4 2 After the study of the variations of β and γ ver-
sponding values of a are found to be a= 1 , 25 , 9 ,
4 64 16 sus µ i+1 to have unconditional stability, it is natural
49 and 1. For stiffness hardening, the possible range
64 to consider the possible range of µ i+1 to possess the
of β to have unconditional stability is decreased with unconditional stability for given β and γ . Thus,
S. Y. Chang: Studies of Newmark Method for Solving Nonlinear Systems: (I) Basic Analysis 657
Fig. 2 Variations of lower and upper bounds of β with µ i+1 for Fig. 3 Variations of lower and upper bounds of µ i+1 with β
stiffness softening
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using the procedure similar to the derivation of Eq. (2) Conditional stability
(29), Eq. (21) will lead to
Conditional stability limits for the Newmark
e≤ µ i+1 ≤f if γ − 1 < β≤ γ − 1 method can be derived from Eq. (21) and are summa-
2 4 rized as follows
e≤ µ i+1 ≤g if β ≥ γ − 1 and β ≠γ + 1
4 2 0<Ω i<min( Ωia , Ωib ) if β <γ − 1 and
2
1 β≤µ if β ≥ γ − 1 and β = γ + 1
4 i+1 4 2
(30) µ i+1<e or f< µi+1
Table 2. Possible range of µ i to have unconditional and conditional stability for the four members of the
Newmark method
Method Two real or two complex eigenvalues Two complex conjugate eigenvalues
β γ Unco. Stab. Conditional Stability Unco. Stab. Conditional Stability
0 1
2
none 0<µ i+1<∞ 0< Ω i none 0< µ i+1<∞ 0< Ω i≤ 4
µi + 1
≤ 4
µi + 1
1
6
1
2
0< µ i+1 ≤ 12 1 < µ ≤1
2 i+1
0< Ω i 7 – 2 6 ≤µ
i+1 0< µ i+1< 7 – 2 6 or 0< Ω i
25 25
7 + 2 6 < µ <1 144µ i + 1
≤ 12
2µ i + 1 – 1
≤ 7 + 2 6 ≤
25µ i2+ 1 – 14µ i + 1 + 1
25 25 i+1
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1
4
1
2
0< µ i+1 ≤1 none none 1 ≤ µ ≤1
9 i+1
0< µ i+1< 19 0< Ω i≤
64µ i + 1
9µ i2+ 1 – 10µ i + 1 + 1
(iii) Summary
4. Accuracy
4A 2 ln(A 2)
Ω i + 1 = tan – 1( – 1 ) , ξi +1 = –
A1 2 Ωi+1
(36)
while stable solutions can be obtained for the case of results are still indicative for nonlinear dynamic
stiffness invariant and any degree of softening analysis. Numerical properties for the solution of
nonlinearity. This figure also shows that the spectral nonlinear systems highly depend on the degree of
radius is only a little greater than 1 for µ i+1 >1 as nonlinearity in each time step. This explains why the
∆ t/T i is small enough. This strongly indicates that performance of a step-by-step integration method in
reliable solutions for any degree of hardening the solution of nonlinear systems cannot be reliably
nonlinearity may still be achieved if the integration predicted by the evaluation methods used for linear
time step is small enough. In fact, it will be illus- elastic systems. It seems that the theoretical evalua-
trated by means of numerical examples in the accom- tion results for the Newmark method are consistent
panying paper (Chang, 2004) that the way to yield with the phenomena experienced in the step-by-step
reliable solutions for any degree of hardening solution of nonlinear systems. However, numerical
nonlinearity is essentially to rely upon the use of a verifications are needed. In fact, detailed verifica-
small time step to keep the spectral radius smaller tions and guidelines to have accurate solutions for
than 1 and thus to delay the numerical instability un- nonlinear dynamic analysis are studied in the accom-
til accurate results are obtained. This is because that panying paper.
as ∆ t/T i is small enough the solution is still in an os-
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Chang, S. Y., 2004, “Studies of Newmark Method for Applied Mechanics, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 417-421.
Solving Nonlinear Systems: (II) Verification and Newmark, N. M., 1959, “A Method of Computation
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Goudreau, G. L., and Taylor, R. L., 1972, “Evalua-
tion of Numerical Integration Methods in Elasto- Manuscript Received: May 02, 2003
dynamics,” Computer Methods in Applied Mechan- Revision Received: Dec. 10, 2003
ics and Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 69-97. and Accepted: Jan. 20, 2004
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