A Dissipative Momentum-Conserving Time Integration Algorithm for Nonlinear Structural Dynamics

A second-order accurate single-step time integration method for nonlinear structural dynamics is developed. The method combines algorithmic dissipation of higher modes and conservation of linear and angular momentum and is composed of two phases. In the first phase, a solution point is computed by a basic integration scheme, the generalized-α method being adopted due to its higher level of high-frequency dissipation. In the second phase, a correction is hypothesized as a linear combination of the solution in the basic step and the gradient of vector components of the incremental linear and angular momentum. By solving a system composed of six linear equations, the searched for corrected solution in the time step is then provided. The novelty in the presented integration scheme lies in the way of imposing the conservation of linear and angular momentum. In fact, this imposition is carried out as a correction of the computed solution point in the time step and not through an enlarged system of equations of motion. To perform tests on plane and spatial motion of three-dimensional structural models, a small strains-finite rotations corotational formulation is also described.