A variable-step central difference method for structural dynamics analysis — part 1. Theoretical aspects

Abstract Three major theoretical aspects of variable-step explicit integration procedures are proposed and analyzed. These include basic fixed-step integration formulas for no damping, diagonal damping and nondiagonal damping problems; the adjustment of the basic formulas to accommodate step changes; and step size selection criteria. It is shown that the truncation error concept is not adequate to detect numerical instability for general structural dynamics analysis when low accuracy is requested. The “apparent frequency” concept is introduced to maximize stable step sizes and is shown to be stable when low accuracy is requested.