Comparison of two numerical methods for the time-wise integration oftransient structural response

T Note compares the relative efficiency of two numerical methods for the time-wise integration of the transient response of a thin, elastic shell of revolution subjected to arbitrary asymmetric loads. The two methods are 1) the numerically stable, implicit Houbolt backward differencing scheme, and 2) the explicit central differencing scheme. The efficiency of these two methods was compared in Ref. 1 using actual computer times. Their relative efficiency is determined here by counting the number of multiplications and divisions required to generate a solution at each time step. Although this procedure is not infallible, it does provide an estimate of the potential computational efficiency of a method.