Compuwrs & S~rurrures Vol. 30. No. 4. pp. 851-854. 1988 004%7949/88 $3.M) + 0.

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Printed in Great Britain. 0 1988 Pergamon Press plc

SIMPLIFIED DYNAMIC CONDENSATION IN

MULTI-SUBSTRUCTURE SYSTEMS?
XIANLu
Research Institute of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian Institute of Technology, Dalian,
Liaoning Province, The People’s Republic of China

Abstract-With the simplified dynamic condensation method presented in this paper the dynamic effects
of a substructure’s internal DOF can be taken into account in dynamic analysis of a multi-substructure
system. Better accuracy is obtained both in the eigen-pairs from free vibration analysis and in the
higher-mode responses from dynamic response analysis compared with the static condensation method.
In some cases, neglect of the effects of internal DOF or the higher modes may result in substantial errors.
Using the method presented in this paper, such errors can be greatly reduced. Moreover, the simplified
method is nearly as simple in form as the static method, and thus it is not difficult to implement in
multi-substructure systems.

INTRODUCTION DYNAMIC CONDENSATION OF A MULTI-LEVEL

SUBSTRUCTURESYSTEM
Although many dynamic substructure techniques
have been studied and put into application, the static Supposing the free vibration equation of a sub-
condensation (SC) method proposed by Guyan and structure is written as
Irons [l, 21 is still widely used in dynamic analysis
since its formulas are simple and it can be used [Kl{xJ= wfl{X), (1)
conveniently in arbitrary multilevel substructure sys-
tems. When using this method, however, the external where [Kj and [M] are stiffness and mass matrices.
degrees of freedom (DOF) of each substructure have I and vector {x} denote the unknown eigen-pair.
to be carefully selected. Improper treatment of exter- Partitioning eqn (1) as
nal DOF, e.g. an insufficient number or unreasonable
distribution, would result in serious errors.
Model synthesis used in substructure systems has
no limitation in the selection of external DOF [3-51.
But in multi-level and multi-branch substructure where {xi} and {x0} correspond to internal and
systems it is not so convenient. Even in a two-level external DOF, and using the fixed interface mode
and multi-branch substructure system, there is a strict [X,] and the constraint mode [X,,] to express {xi} [9],
limitation on the number of modal coordinates if the we can write
whole problem is divided into many substructures.
Dynamic substructure methods [6-81, on the other
hand, do not have the above problems, so that the
order of the dynamic equation can be greatly reduced
and there is no need to replace the physical coordi- where
nates by model ones. However, this kind of dynamic
condensation deals with nonlinear eigen-problems
which are far from easy to solve and are also difficult
to implement in multi-level substructure systems.
In this paper, a simplified dynamic condensation
(SDC) method is presented, which is simple in form, [xidl’lMiil
Ixidl= 149 (5)
and similar to the SC method. In the SDC method,
we can take into account the dynamic effects of the [A,]is the frequency spectrum matrix corresponding
internal DOF of substructures by means of linear- to [X,], and (a} are the unknown modal coordinates.
izing their nonlinear eigen equations. In the analysis Substituting eqn (3) into (2), we have
of either free vibration or dynamic response, there-
fore, the accuracy of results is much better than that
obtained with the SC method. In addition, the SDC
method can be easily implemented in a general pur-
pose program of multi-level substructure systems. where

t Financed by National Science Fund, China, IBl = [xidlT~~Miol

- [Miil[fGjl_’ [Kol). (7)
851
852 XIANLu

[K,] and [M,,] are the condensed matrices of stiffness where

and mass, which are the same as those in the SC
(16)
method. From eqn (6), we have
Thus, eqn (9) has been simplified to a linear
problem similar to the SC method. In this paper we
suggest the use of one of the lower frequencies
and computed from the SC method to determine 1, for
the best improvement on the lower frequency eigen-
pairs. Obviously, when AL= 0, it is completely equal
to the SC method.
where
SIMPLIFIED DYNAMIC CONDENSATION IN
RESPONSE ANALYSIS
[Al = M&l - 4ZI)-‘. (10)
Supposing the dynamic equation of a substructure
If the inverse [,4,] does not exist, {x,} must be null, is written as
otherwise eqn (9) is meaningless. Generally speaking,
by proper arranging of the substructures it is not
difficult to ensure that the concerned frequencies of
the whole structure are less than A, the minimum
frequency of all substructures with interfaces fixed,
i.e. 1 < &, . It is also a necessary condition for the SC
method. In the following section, this requirement is
assumed to be met. where [C] and (F) are the damping matrix and the
exciting force vector, respectively. Substituting eqn
(3) into (7), we have

SIMPLIFIED DYNAMIC CONDENSATION

(Vdl - w2vl + ~W,l){a)
Because of the nonlinearity, eqn (9) is difficult to + (-w’[B] + iw[D]){x,}= {F,} (18)
implement in multilevel substructure systems. While
in the SC method, the term [B]qn,][B] in eqn (6) is (-02[B]‘+ iw[Dl3{a}
completely missing so that it is impossible to take into
account the dynamic effects of the internal DOF of
+wo1- ~2Pfo1+ ~4col){%j = {Fo}, (19)
substructures. In order to solve the above problems,
where [K,], [M,] and [B] are the same as those in
we propose here a simplified dynamic condensation
eqn (3). [C,] and {F,} are the condensed matrices
method. Under the above mentioned requirement the
from the SC method [9], and
jth diagonal element of [A,] takes the form
PI = Kflrwiol - K,1K,1-‘K,1)
(11)
[Cl = raK,l KidI
Thus, [A,] can be written as iFb}= [xidIr(E;t
1. (20)

Generally, the exciting frequency w is much lower

than the frequencies of the respective fixed interface
mode of the substructures, So the responses of the
Substituting [A,] into eqn (9) we obtain internal DOF in eqn (18) are controlled mainly by
the stiffness. Therefore, the mass and damping are
negligible, i.e.

{a} = Lb-‘{~,I +~*[4J’P1~~,~. (21)

where
Allowing wJ(&) to approximate w* in eqn (21),
we substitute {a} into eqn (19) and neglect the
In”1= bm4?-“Pl. (14)
damping term corresponding to the internal DOF of
the relevant substructure, io[o]{a}, thus a linearized
Truncating eqn (13) and linearizing it with I,,
dynamic equation can be derived
which is called the linearizing parameter, we can
replace eqn (13) in an approximate manner with
 Simplified dynamic condensation in multi-substructure systems 853

o.sp
- r-l’2r x-x SC

P 0-m Accurate
* IO

P 0.5 m
- -8 C--

P
* 6

P
- 4 c--
0.5 m

Basic
substructure

Fig. 1. Twelve-story structure.

05 1.0 IS

where [MJ is the same as that in eqn (16). From the
above derivation we can see that only the mass matrix
and the exciting force vector, in the SDC method,
have been revised, while the condensed matrices [KJ
and [C,] are exactly the same as those from the SC
method. If Iz, = 0, it becomes the SC method.
NUMERICAL RESULTS
A 12-story frame structure subjected to harmonic
exciting forces with frequency w(02 = 0.02 k/m ) is
shown in Fig. 1. All floors are rigid. The mass of each
floor is m, the shear stiffness of the columns is k. In
the Rayleigh damping matrix [C] = c,[M] + ck[K],
the coefficients are taken as c, = 0.05@1/k)-“~ and
Ck= OS(k/m)“2.
The free vibration results with the SDC method are
listed in Table 1 in comparison with those with the
SC method and those of original structure without
condensation. The response amplitudes calculated
from the SDC method and the SC method as well as
the original structure are shown in Fig. 2. In this
example, only the first mode of each substructure,
Amplitude p/k
Fig. 2. Response amplitude.
including the highest level substructure, is used in the
computation of the responses, while the original
structure is analyzed with its first six modes of the
non-condensed equation. Results show that the accu-
racy of the SDC method is much better than that of
the SC method both in free vibration and dynamic
response analysis.
CONCLUSIONS
From the theoretical derivation and the example
analysis in this paper, the following conclusions can
be drawn.
1. The SDC method is almost as simple as the SC
method and can be easily used in arbitrary multi-level
substructure systems.
2. The dyanamic effects of internal DOF of sub-
structures can be taken into account by the SDC
method, therefore, much better results can be ob-

Table 1. Free vibration results

Error Error Error
Frequency (k /m)‘12 01 W) w2 W) w3 %

Original structure solution 0.13079 I 0.39019 / 0.64289 /

SC method 0.13221 1.081 0.42640 9.282 0.74802 16.354
SDC method 1, = (WY)*
1 Sub mode 0.13083 0.027 0.42307 8.428 0.74672 16.151
2 Sub modes 0.13082 0.023 0.4229 1 8.386 0.74581 16.010
3 Sub modes 0.13082 0.018 0.42289 8.381 0.74580 16.009
SDC method I, = (WY)’
1 Sub mode 0.11969 - 8.494 0.39515 1.271 0.73478 14.295
2 Sub modes 0.11965 - 8.524 0.39375 0.913 0.72594 12.919
3 Sub modes 0.11959 - 8.565 0.39361 0.878 0.72558 12.909
Notation. WYand o! denote the first two frequencies calculated from the SC method.
854 XIAN Lu
tained both in free vibration and dynamic response
analysis by the SDC method, compared with that by
the SC method.
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