A dissipative family of eigen-based integration methods for nonlinear dynamic analysis

A novel family of controllable, dissipative structure-dependent integration methods is derived from an eigen-based theory, where the concept of the eigenmode can give a solid theoretical basis for the feasibility of this type of integration methods. In fact, the concepts of eigen-decomposition and modal superposition are involved in solving a multiple degree of freedom system. The total solution of a coupled equation of motion consists of each modal solution of the uncoupled equation of motion. Hence, an eigen-dependent integration method is proposed to solve each modal equation of motion and an approximate solution can be yielded via modal superposition with only the first few modes of interest for inertial problems. All the eigen-dependent integration methods combine to form a structure-dependent integration method. Some key assumptions and new techniques are combined to successfully develop this family of integration methods. In addition, this family of integration methods can be either explicitly or implicitly implemented. Except for stability property, both explicit and implicit implementations have almost the same numerical properties. An explicit implementation is more computationally efficient than for an implicit implementation since it can combine unconditional stability and explicit formulation simultaneously. As a result, an explicit implementation is preferred over an implicit implementation. This family of integration methods can have the same numerical properties as those of the WBZ-α method for linear elastic systems. Besides, its stability and accuracy performance for solving nonlinear systems is also almost the same as those of the WBZ-α method. It is evident from numerical experiments that an explicit implementation of this family of integration methods can save many computational efforts when compared to conventional implicit methods, such as the WBZ-α method.