Application of Solution Structure Method to Modeling Dynamic Response of Mechanical Structures

Abstract

Transient nature of the loading conditions applied to the structural components makes dynamic analysis one of the important components in the design-analysis cycle. Time-varying forces and accelerations can substantially change stress distributions and cause a premature failure of the mechanical structures. In addition, it is also important to determine dynamic response of the structural elements to the frequency of the applied loads. In this paper we describe an application of the meshfree Solution Structure Method to the structural dynamics problems. Solution Structure Method is a meshfree method which enables construction of the solutions to the engineering problems that satisfy exactly all prescribed boundary conditions. This method is capable of using spatial meshes that do not conform to the shape of a geometric model. Instead of using the grid nodes to enforce boundary conditions, it employs distance fields to the geometric boundaries and combines them with the basis functions and prescribed boundary conditions at run time. This defines unprecedented geometric flexibility of the Solution Structure Method as well as the complete automation of the solution procedure.