A LOAD-DEPENDENT BASIS FOR REDUCED NONLINEAR STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS

Abstract A computational algorithm for predicting the dynamical response of a nonlinear structure by means of a reduction scheme is described. In it, the nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations obtained from the finite element discretization is reduced, by employing a Rayleigh-Ritz technique. A new criterion for the computation of the basis vectors is proposed. It is based on a sequence of basis vectors proposed by Wilson et al. for linear dynamics problems, which was augmented by adding derivatives of these vectors with respect to the generalized displacement amplitudes. The later vectors allow the treatment of nonlinear problems.