Solution Algorithm |
  
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Solution Algorithm |
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Mathematically, the static analysis involves solving the following simultaneous equations:
[K] [U] = [R]
where [K] is the global stiffness matrix, [U] is the displacement vector, and [R] is the load vector for each load combination.
There are two solution algorithms used in ENERCALC 3D: skyline and sparse. The skyline solution algorithm used to solve the equation above was developed by K.J. Bathe [Ref. 1]. It is an active column (also called profile or skyline) solver that involves the factorization of a stiffness matrix and the back-substitution of the load vector. The factorization generally takes most of solution time while the back-substitution is relatively fast. For all linear load combinations, the factorization only needs to be performed once. For nonlinear load combinations, the factorization has to be performed multiple times on each load combination because the global stiffness matrix has to be updated during the solving process. This is the reason why linear and nonlinear load combinations are analyzed separately.
The sparse solver only stores non-zero elements in the global stiffness matrix, thus it is both more memory efficient and much faster than the skyline solver. It also has the option to use an out-of-core approach to minimize the requirement of computer memory. This is useful to solve extremely large structural models. The sparse solver is available for static analysis only. It lacks some of the informative error messages when something goes wrong during the solution process.
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