Numerical Procedure for the Dynamic Analysis of Truss Space Structures

A numerical procedure, which lies between Rayleigh ‐Ritz and the e nite element method so far applied only to aeronautical structures in both two- and three-dimensional space, is utilized for the dynamic analysis of periodic truss space structures, typical of appendices of artie cial satellites. The structural components are unidimensional tube-type elements with circularcrosssections. They areconsidered as beam elements, forwhich a complete model for the internal strain energy has been utilized. Three different numbers of component bays of these structures are assumed in the numerical applications, and the obtained results are analyzed. The advantages of the proposed method as the number of the component bays increases, particularly with respect to the CPU time, are pointed out comparing the obtained results with the ones of a classical e nite element method numerical program, such as MSC/NASTRAN.