TREATMENT OF RELEASES AND CONSTRAINTS IN THE NETWORK FORMULATION OF STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS.

Abstract : In the hitherto developed network-topological formulation of linear structural analysis each member and each support joint was assumed to provide full fixity in all directions considered, and all distortion components in a member were incorporated in the stiffness or flexibility matrix of the member. In actual structures it is often desirable to prescribe additional conditions on individual force or displacement vector components. The network formulation is extended so that arbitrary specifications of releases and constraints for both members and joints can be incorporated into the general formulation without destroying its simplicity and compactness. As a special case of joint releases, a convenient procedure for the treatment of symmetrical and antisymmetrical structures is described. The theory is developed for both the stiffness and flexibility methods; however, only the implementation of the stiffness formulation has been carried out and is presented herein. (Author)