Structural analysis is mainly concerned with finding out the behavior 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
first 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 behavior 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
1 Displacements
2 Time history analysis
2.1 Example
3 Damping
4 Modal analysis
4.1 Energy method
4.2 Modal response
5 Modal participation factor
6 External links
Displacements
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) or dynamic load factor(DLF):

{\displaystyle DAF=DLF={\frac {u_{max}}{u_{static}}}} {\displaystyle DAF=DLF={\frac

{u_{max}}{u_{static}}}}
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

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

{\displaystyle M{\ddot {x}}+kx=F(t)} M{{\ddot {x}}}+kx=F(t)

where {\displaystyle {\ddot {x}}} {\ddot {x}} 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:

{\displaystyle x={\frac {F_{0}}{k}}[1-cos{(\omega t)}]} x={\frac {{F_{0}}}{{k}}}

[1-cos{(\omega t)}]
where {\displaystyle \omega ={\sqrt {\frac {k}{M}}}} \omega ={\sqrt {{\frac {{k}}
{{M}}}}} and the fundamental natural frequency, {\displaystyle f={\frac {\omega }
{2\pi }}} f={\frac {\omega }{2\pi }}.

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

{\displaystyle x_{static}={\frac {F_{0}}{k}}} x_{{static}}={\frac {{F_{0}}}{{k}}}

so you can write, by combining the above formulae:

{\displaystyle x=x_{static}[1-cos(\omega t)]} x=x_{{static}}[1-cos(\omega t)]

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

{\displaystyle DAF=1+e^{-c\pi }} DAF=1+e^{{-c\pi }}

where {\displaystyle c={\frac {\text{Damping Coefficient}}{\text{Critical Damping
Coefficient}}}} c={\frac {{{\text{Damping Coefficient}}}}{{{\text{Critical Damping
Coefficient}}}}} and is typically 2%-10% depending on the type of construction:

Bolted steel ~6%

Reinforced concrete ~ 5%
Welded steel ~ 2%
Brick masonry ~ 10%
Methods to increase damping

One of the widely used methods to increase damping is to attach a layer of material
with a high Damping Coefficient, for example rubber, to a vibrating structure.
Modal analysis
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:

Find the natural modes (the shape adopted by a structure) and natural frequencies
Calculate the response of each mode
Optionally superpose the response of each mode to find the full modal response to a
given loading
Energy method
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 {\displaystyle {\bar {u}}(x)} {\bar {u}}(x), 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):

{\displaystyle {\text{Equivalent mass, }}M_{eq}=\int {M{\bar {u}}^{2}}du}

{\text{Equivalent mass, }}M_{{eq}}=\int {M{\bar {u}}^{2}}du
{\displaystyle {\text{Equivalent stiffness, }}k_{eq}=\int {EI{\bigg (}{\frac {d^{2}
{\bar {u}}}{dx^{2}}}{\bigg )}^{2}}dx} {\text{Equivalent stiffness, }}k_{{eq}}=\int
{EI{\bigg (}{\frac {{d^{2}{\bar {u}}}}{{dx^{2}}}}{\bigg )}^{2}}dx
{\displaystyle {\text{Equivalent force, }}F_{eq}=\int {F{\bar {u}}}dx}
{\text{Equivalent force, }}F_{{eq}}=\int {F{\bar {u}}}dx
then, as above:

{\displaystyle \omega ={\sqrt {\frac {k_{eq}}{M_{eq}}}}} \omega ={\sqrt {{\frac

{{k_{{eq}}}}{{M_{{eq}}}}}}}
Modal response
The complete modal response to a given load F(x,t) is {\displaystyle v(x,t)=\sum
{u_{n}(x,t)}} v(x,t)=\sum {u_{n}(x,t)}. 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 = 2p/?), it is possible to read the DAF
from a standard graph. The static displacement can be calculated with
{\displaystyle u_{static}={\frac {F_{1,eq}}{k_{1,eq}}}} u_{{static}}={\frac
{F_{{1,eq}}}{k_{{1,eq}}}}. The dynamic displacement for the chosen mode and applied
force can then be found from:

{\displaystyle u_{max}=u_{static}DAF} u_{{max}}=u_{{static}}DAF

Modal participation factor
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 G is a
comparison of these two masses. For a single degree of freedom system G = 1.

G {\displaystyle ={\frac {\sum {M_{n}{\bar {u}}_{n}}}{\sum {M_{n}{\bar

{u}}_{n}^{2}}}}} ={\frac {\sum {M_{n}{\bar {u}}_{n}}}{\sum {M_{n}{\bar
{u}}_{n}^{2}}}}