The dynamic analysis of beams under distributed

loads using Laplace-based spectral element method

Zhang Junbing
,
, Zhu Hongping
,
, Wang Dansheng
,

) School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics,

Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
Wuhan, 430074China
) Hubei Key Laboratory of Control Structure,
Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
Wuhan, 430074


AbstractThe finite element method (FEM) is certainly one of
the most popular methods used for structural analysis. However,
it is well known that a sufficiently large number of finite elements
are necessary in order to obtain reliable structural dynamic
responses owing to their high flexibility and large size, especially
at high frequency. Since the shape functions of the spectral
element method (SEM) are exact solutions of the governing
differential equations of structures, the number of elements is
significantly decreased. Unfortunately, conventional SEM can
only be applied to structures subjected to concentrated loads.
This paper presents the dynamic analysis of beams under
distributed loads using Laplace-based SEM. Distributed loads
are equivalent to concentrated nodal forces based on the
principle of linear superposition. A continuous Bernoulli-Euler
beam subjected to uniform vertical dynamic distributed load is
analyzed here to show the effect of SEM. Both internal
viscoelastic damping and external viscous damping are
considered in this paper. The numerical results obtained from
SEM are compared with those from FEM. It has been found that
the SEM provides good dynamic results under distributed loads.
The SEM has been proved to be an efficient method to analyze
the dynamic responses of structures while the number of
elements can greatly decrease.
Keywords-dynamic responses; FEM; SEM; dynamic distributed
load; Laplace transform
I. INTRODUCTION
The dynamic behavior of structure is of great important in
engineering, which has been widely studied by researchers
during the past decades. With the development of computer
technology, FEM has been intensively used to predict dynamic
response of engineering structures. However, it is well known
that a sufficiently large number of finite elements are inevitable
in order to obtain reliable structural dynamic responses owing
to their high flexibility and large size, especially at high
frequency [1]. The computational complexity of FEM increases
significantly with the number of elements. Doyle [2-4], Leung
[5] and Lee [1, 6, 7] have proposed the SEM, also named
dynamic stiffness method, to obtain the dynamic responses of
structures, which treats the distributed mass exactly in
analytical formulation. Thus, SEM provides very accurate
results compared with those obtained from the conventional
FEM. Only one spectral element need be placed between any
two joints and this substantially reduces the total number of
degrees of freedom [2]. Thus, the time consuming and the data
storage of computers can be reduced significantly.
Fast Fourier transform (FFT) has been widely used in SEM
[1-7]. Because of the periodicity of FFT [8], the FFT-based
SEM mainly concentrated on infinite or semi-infinite elements.
H. Igawa et al. [8] proposed Laplace transform instead of FFT
to avoid the periodicity in SEM. However, H. Igawas work
was limited to concentrated loads. U. Lee and J. Lee [6]
applied extended FFT-based SEM to structures subjected to
dynamic distributed loads based on the virtual work theory.
The principle of linear superposition and numerical integration
algorithm were also presented to predict the dynamic responses
of structures in their paper [9]. However, their work was only
suitable for a certain structure. When the analyzed structure
changed, the numerical integration expressions need be revised
accordingly. Thus, they didnt have any generality and
compatibility for programming. This paper presents the
dynamic analysis of beams under distributed loads using
Laplace-based SEM. Distributed loads are equivalent to
concentrated forces based on the principle of linear
superposition. The calculation of the equivalent concentrated
forces is very suitable for programming. Both internal
viscoelastic damping and external viscous damping of
structures are introduced during the process of dynamic
analysis. By comparison of the numerical results obtained from
SEM and those from FEM, the ability and effectiveness of
SEM under distributed dynamic loads have been proved.
II. SPECTRAL STIFFNESS MATRIX
A. Spectral element stiffness matrix
When internal viscoelastic damping and external viscous
damping are considered, the elastic spectral element
undergoing flexural motions is governed by the following
equation [10]

4 5 2
1 4 4 2
0
v v v v
EI a c A
x x t t t

| |
+ + + =
|

\ .
(1)
978-1-4244-4994-1/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE
where = (x,t) is the lateral displacement of the spectral
element, EI is the flexural stiffness, A is the mass per unit
length, a
1
is the coefficient of internal viscoelastic damping and
c is the coefficient of external viscous damping.
Laplace transform is applied to both sides of (1). Therefore,
(1) can be rewritten as

( )
1
4 2 4
4
1
0,
1
b b
v cs s A
k v k
x EI a s

| |
+
+ = =
|
|
+
\ .

(2)
where
( ) , x =

is the Laplace transformed lateral
displacement, s is the Laplacian operator, k
b
is the wave
number of flexural vibration.
By substituting corresponding boundary conditions into (2)
and solving, the relationship between the nodal forces and the
nodal displacements in Laplace domain can be expressed as
follows [2, 3, 6, 8]

1 1
2 2
1 1
3
2 2
2 2
2 2
v L L Q
L L L L M EI
v L L L Q
L L L L M




(
(

(
=
` `
(

(

) )

(3)
where
( )( ) ( )( )
( )( ) ( )( )
( )( ) ( )
3 3
2 2
/ det, / det,
/ det, / det,
/ det, / det,
det 1
sin , sinh L, cos , cosh
b b
b b
b b
b b b b
CSh SCh k L S Sh k L
CSh SCh k L S Sh k L
C Ch k L SSh k L
CCh
S k L Sh k C k L Ch k L



= + = +
= + = +
= + =
=
= = = =
Equation (3) can be rewritten in matrix form
( ) { } ( ) ( ) { }
e
e e
F s K s U s ( =


(4)
where
( ) { }
e
F s

and
( ) { }
e
U s

are the nodal force vector and the

nodal displacement vector in Laplace domain respectively,
( )
e
K s (

is called the spectral element stiffness matrix.

B. Global stiffness matrix
When the spectral stiffness matrix of element has been
obtained, the same assembly process as conventional FEM is
executed to obtain the global spectral stiffness matrix of
structures [2, 8]. Therefore, the global displacement vector in
Laplace domain can be expressed as

( ) { } ( ) ( ) { }
1
U s K s F s

( =


(5)
where
( ) { }
U s

and
( ) { }
F s

are the global nodal displacement

vector and the global nodal force vector in Laplace domain
respectively,
( ) K s (

is the global spectral stiffness matrix.

III. NUMERICAL LAPLACE TRANSFORMATION
Based on the definition of Laplace transform, the Laplace-
transformed dynamic force vector is given as [10]

( ) { } ( ) { } ( ) { }
0
i t
F s F i F t e e d


+
= + =
)

(6)
where is the circular frequency, s = + i is the Laplacian
operator, = 2/NT [8, 10] is the positive real constant in
Laplace transform, N is the sampling point number and T is
the sampling rate.
From (6) and the definition of inverse Laplace transform,
the nodal displacement vector in time domain is given as [8]

( ) { } ( ) { }
1
2
t i t
U s e U s e d

=
)

(7)
IV. EQUIVALENT NODAL FORCES UNDER DYNAMIC
DISTRIBUTED LOADS
Traditional SEM was only applied to the structures
subjected to dynamic concentrated nodal forces [9, 11]. U. Lee
and J. Lee [9] applied extended FFT-based SEM to the
structures subjected to dynamic distributed loads based on the
theory of linear superposition and numerical integration
algorithm. However, the equations in their papers were
confined to a certain structure, e.g. a cantilever beam. When
the structure system changed, the equations need to be re-
derived. Therefore, it is not convenient to use. This paper
presents general expressions of the equivalent nodal forces
based on the theory of linear superposition and numerical
integration algorithm. These expressions are very suitable for
computer programs.
A. Principle of Linear Superposition
Consider a simple beam as shown in Fig. 1. The structure (a)
with distributed loads is equivalent to a clamped-clamped beam
(b). The equivalent nodal forces are equal to the reactions of
the clamped-clamped beam with their directions reversed [5].
( ) , F x

2
e
M

1
e
M

2
e
Q

1
e
Q

( ) , F x

Figure 1. Principle of superposition.

B. Reactions Under Concentrated Loads
Fig. 2(a) shows a clamped-clamped beam under distributed
load. The distributed load can be considered as a series of
concentrated loads along the span of beam [5]. The clamped-
clamped beam under concentrated load can be meshed into two
elements, as shown in Fig. 2(b). Equation (8) is the assembled
global stiffness of these two spectral elements where
superscripts 1 and 2 refer to the first and the second element.
( ) , Q x

( ) , Q x dx

1
L x =
2
L L x =
dx
x
Figure 2. Clamped-clamped beam under distributed load.
1 1 1 1
1 11 12 13 14
1 1 1 1
1 21 22 23 24
1 1 1 2 1 2 2 2
2 31 32 33 11 34 12 13 14
1 1 1 2 1 2 2 2
2 41 42 43 21 44 22 23 24
2 2 2 2
3 31 32 33 34
2 2 2 2
3 41 42 43 44
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
v k k k k
k k k k
v k k k k k k k k
k k k k k k k k
v k k k k
k k k k

(
(
(
(
+ +

( `
+ +
(
(
(
(
)

[ ] { }
{ }
1 1 2 2 3 3
6 6
1 1 2 2 3 3
T
T
K v v v
Q M Q M Q M

=
=



(8)
where [ ]
6 6
K

is the global spectral matrix of the clamped-

clamped beam.
Applying corresponding boundary conditions into (8), it
can be reduced to the follow form

1 2 1 2
2 33 11 34 12 2
1 2 1 2
2 43 21 44 22 2
v k k k k Q
k k k k M
( + +

=
` ` (
+ +
) )

(9)
From (9), the spectral nodal displacements can be written as

1 1
2 11 2 12 2
1 1
2 21 2 22 2
v S Q S M
S Q S M


= +
= +

(10)
where S
-1
ij
denotes the elements of the inverse matrix of the
matrix from (9). Taking the restriction conditions into
consideration, the spectral nodal displacement vector can be
expressed as

{ } { }
2 2
0 0 0 0
T
T
D v =

(11)
Substituting (10) and (11) into (8), the reactions of the
clamped-clamped beam under concentrated loads are given as:

( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
1 1 1 1 1 1
1 13 11 2 12 2 14 21 2 22 2
1 1 1 1 1 1
1 23 11 2 12 2 24 21 2 22 2
1 1 1 1 1 1
3 31 11 2 12 2 32 21 2 22 2
1 1 1 1 1 1
3 41 11 2 12 2 42 21 2 22 2
Q k S Q S M k S Q S M
M k S Q S M k S Q S M
Q k S Q S M k S Q S M
M k S Q S M k S Q S M




= + + +
= + + +
= + + +
= + + +




(12)
C. Equivalent Nodal Forces Under Dynamic Distributed
Loads
As described in previous sections, the distributed load can
be considered as a series of concentrated loads along the span
of beam [5]. Thus, the reactions of the clamped-clamped beam
under distributed loads can be obtained by the integral of the
reactions under concentrated loads which acting on the micro-
segment along the span of beam. Considering the directions
reversed, the equivalent nodal forces under distributed loads
can be written as

1 1 1 1
0 0
2 3 2 3
0 0
, ,
, .
L L
e e
L L
e e
Q Qdx M M dx
Q Q dx M M dx
= =
= =
) )
) )


(13)
Equation (13) gives the equivalent nodal forces under all
kinds of distributed loads.
V. NUMERICAL RESULTS
Consider a continuous Bernoulli-Euler beam subjected to
uniform vertical dynamic distributed load as shown in Fig. 3.
Table 1 shows the sizes and material properties of beam which
was also used in [8]. Fig. 4 shows the applied vertical dynamic
distributed force [8]. The numerical example uses the sampling
rate T = 0.005 s, the sampling point number N = 2048. Both
the coefficients of internal viscoelastic damping and external
viscous damping are set to 0.01.
5000 5000 5000
15000
13
0
.
2
5
F(t)
C B D
Figure 3. Schematic of a continuous beam.
TABLE I. SIZE AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF THE BEAM
Thickness
(m)
Width
(m)
Length
(m)
E
(Pa)

(kg/m
3
)

2.5E-4 1.3E-2 15 2.09E+11 7.8E+03 0.3
Fig. 5 shows the comparison of the dynamic responses of
beam obtained from SEM and FEM. The dynamic response of
rotation at point D is calculated here to evaluate the
effectiveness of the Laplace-based SEM. 3 elements are used in
SEM, while the continuous beam is divided into 3, 15, 30, 75
elements respectively in FEM.
Time (s)
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00
F
o
r
c
e

(
N
)
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
Figure 4. Time histrory of distributed load.
Time (s)
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
R
o
t
a
t
i
o
n
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
SEM
FEM 3 elements
FEM 15 elements
FEM 30 elements
FEM 75 elements
Figure 5. Comparison of the dynamic responses by SEM and FEM.
As shown in Fig. 5, by increasing the number of elements
in FEM, the improved FEM results which gradually approach
the SEM results are obtained. It is observed in Fig. 5 that when
the number of elements increases to 75 in FEM, the numerical
results obtained from FEM agree very well with those from
SEM. The results show that based on the principle of linear
superposition, the dynamic distributed loads can be equivalent
to nodal forces accurately. By modifying the wave number
properly, both internal viscoelastic damping and external
viscous damping can be considered without any difficulty. The
SEM has been proved to be an efficient method to analyze the
dynamic responses of structures while the number of elements
can greatly decrease.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents the dynamic analysis of beams under
distributed loads using Laplace-based SEM. A continuous
Bernoulli-Euler beam is analyzed to show the effectiveness of
this method. The dynamic distributed loads are equivalent to
concentrated nodal forces based on the principle of linear
superposition. It has been found that the equivalent nodal
forces can be used to calculate the structural dynamic responses
under distributed loads accurately. The internal viscoelastic
damping and the external viscous damping are introduced by
just simply modifying the wave number in SEM. The
numerical results obtained from FEM using 75 elements agree
very well with those from SEM only using 3 elements. It can
be concluded that the SEM is an efficient method to analyze
the dynamic responses of structures while the number of
elements can greatly decrease.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant no: 50778077, 50608036) and
Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher
Education (20070487099).
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