Reduction of Calculation Time for Load Path U * Analysis of Structures

The parameter U* has been introduced by the authors to indicate the load paths in a structure. The most serious problem encountered when calculating U* for actual structures is the high computation time required. In the present study, we propose two methods for reducing the time of FEM calculations required to obtain U* distributions. In the first method, essential terms are extracted from the inverse structural stiffness matrix, and these terms are used to calculate the internal stiffness. In the second method, three independent inspection loadings are applied to each point. In this operation, multiple geometry conditions are converted to multiple mechanical boundary conditions. An actual structure is calculated using this second method, and the rate of decrease in the calculation time is over 90 percent.