Computer-based analysis of spatial frames according to second order theory

Abstract

The analysis of spatial frames formed of beam elements according to the second order theory is presented in the paper. The stiffness matrix and equivalent load vector elements are derived from the exact solution of the corresponding differential equations according to the second order theory. An appropriate computer code ALIN was developed in order to enable numerical formulation of the problem. The code uses the exact stiffness matrix and the exact vector of equivalent loads, as opposed to commercial codes that use the geometric stiffness matrix.