Structural dynamics

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Structural analysis is mainly concerned with finding out the behaviour of a physical structure when
subjected to force. This action can be in the form of load due to the weight of things such as people,
furniture, wind, snow, etc. or some other kind of excitation such as an earthquake, shaking of the
ground due to a blast nearby, etc. In essence all these loads are dynamic, including the self-weight
of the structure because at some point in time these loads were not there. The distinction is made
between the dynamic and the static analysis on the basis of whether the applied action has enough
acceleration in comparison to the structure's natural frequency. If a load is applied sufficiently slowly,
the inertia forces (Newton's second law of motion) can be ignored and the analysis can be simplified
as static analysis. Structural dynamics, therefore, is a type of structural analysis which covers the
behaviour of structures subjected to dynamic (actions having high acceleration) loading. Dynamic
loads include people, wind, waves, traffic,earthquakes, and blasts. Any structure can be subjected to
dynamic loading. Dynamic analysis can be used to find dynamic displacements, time history,
and modal analysis.
A dynamic analysis is also related to the inertia forces developed by a structure when it is excited by
means of dynamic loads applied suddenly (e.g., wind blasts, explosion, earthquake).
A static load is one which varies very slowly. A dynamic load is one which changes with time fairly
quickly in comparison to the structure's natural frequency. If it changes slowly, the structure's
response may be determined with static analysis, but if it varies quickly (relative to the structure's
ability to respond), the response must be determined with a dynamic analysis.
Dynamic analysis for simple structures can be carried out manually, but for complex structures finite
element analysis can be used to calculate the mode shapes and frequencies.
Contents
[hide]

1 Displacements

2 Time history analysis

o

2.1 Example

3 Damping

4 Modal analysis
o

4.1 Energy method

4.2 Modal response

5 Modal participation factor

6 External links

Displacements[edit]

A dynamic load can have a significantly larger effect than a static load of the same magnitude due to
the structure's inability to respond quickly to the loading (by deflecting). The increase in the effect of
a dynamic load is given by the dynamic amplification factor (DAF):

where u is the deflection of the structure due to the applied load.

Graphs of dynamic amplification factors vs non-dimensional rise time (tr/T) exist for standard
loading functions (for an explanation of rise time, see time history analysis below). Hence the
DAF for a given loading can be read from the graph, the static deflection can be easily
calculated for simple structures and the dynamic deflection found.

Time history analysis[edit]

A full time history will give the response of a structure over time during and after the application
of a load. To find the full time history of a structure's response, you must solve the
structure's equation of motion.

Example[edit]

A simple single degree of freedom system (a mass, M, on a spring of stiffness, k for example)
has the following equation of motion:

where is the acceleration (the double derivative of the displacement) and x is the
displacement.
If the loading F(t) is a Heaviside step function (the sudden application of a constant load),
the solution to the equation of motion is:

where

and the fundamental natural frequency,

The static deflection of a single degree of freedom system is:

so you can write, by combining the above formulae:

This gives the (theoretical) time history of the structure due to a load F(t), where
the false assumption is made that there is no damping.
Although this is too simplistic to apply to a real structure, the Heaviside Step
Function is a reasonable model for the application of many real loads, such as
the sudden addition of a piece of furniture, or the removal of a prop to a newly
cast concrete floor. However, in reality loads are never applied instantaneously they build up over a period of time (this may be very short indeed). This time is
called the rise time.
As the number of degrees of freedom of a structure increases it very quickly
becomes too difficult to calculate the time history manually - real structures are
analysed using non-linear finite element analysis software.

Damping[edit]
Any real structure will dissipate energy (mainly through friction). This can be
modelled by modifying the DAF

where
10% depending on the type of construction:

Bolted steel ~6%

Reinforced concrete ~ 5%

Welded steel ~ 2%

Brick masonry ~ 10%

and is typically 2%-

Generally damping would be ignored for non-transient events (such as wind

loading or crowd loading), but would be important for transient events (for
example, an impulse load such as an earthquake loading or bomb blast).

Modal analysis[edit]
A modal analysis calculates the frequency modes or natural frequencies of
a given system, but not necessarily its full-time history response to a given
input. The natural frequency of a system is dependent only on
the stiffness of the structure and the mass which participates with the
structure (including self-weight). It is not dependent on the load function.
It is useful to know the modal frequencies of a structure as it allows you to
ensure that the frequency of any applied periodic loading will not coincide
with a modal frequency and hence cause resonance, which leads to
large oscillations.
The method is:
1. Find the natural modes (the shape adopted by a structure) and
natural frequencies

2. Calculate the response of each mode

3. Optionally superpose the response of each mode to find the full
modal response to a given loading

Energy method[edit]
It is possible to calculate the frequency of different mode shape of system
manually by the energy method. For a given mode shape of a multiple
degree of freedom system you can find an "equivalent" mass, stiffness and
applied force for a single degree of freedom system. For simple structures
the basic mode shapes can be found by inspection, but it is not a
conservative method. Rayleigh's principle states:
"The frequency of an arbitrary mode of vibration, calculated by the
energy method, is always greater than - or equal to - the fundamental
frequency n."
For an assumed mode shape
, of a structural system with mass M;
bending stiffness, EI (Young's modulus, E, multiplied by the second moment
of area, I); and applied force, F(x):

then, as above:

Modal response[edit]
The complete modal response to a given load F(x,t)
is
. The summation can be
carried out by one of three common methods:

Superpose complete time histories of each mode (time

consuming, but exact)

Superpose the maximum amplitudes of each mode

(quick but conservative)

Superpose the square root of the sum of squares

(good estimate for well-separated frequencies, but
unsafe for closely spaced frequencies)

To superpose the individual modal responses manually,

having calculated them by the energy method:
Assuming that the rise time tr is known (T = 2/), it is
possible to read the DAF from a standard graph. The static
displacement can be calculated with
The dynamic displacement for the chosen mode and
applied force can then be found from:

Modal participation factor[edit]

For real systems there is often mass participating in
the forcing function (such as the mass of ground in
an earthquake) and mass participating in inertia effects
(the mass of the structure itself, Meq). The modal
participation factor is a comparison of these two
masses. For a single degree of freedom system = 1.