An Accurate Explicit Direct Time Integration Method for Computational Structural Dynamics

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new simple explicit single step time integration method with controllable high-frequency dissipation. As opposed to the methods generally used in structural dynamics, with a consistency experimentally chosen of second order, the new method is only first-order-consistent but yields smaller numerical errors in low frequencies and is therefore very efficient for structural dynamic analysis. The new method remains explicit for any structural dynamics problem, even when a non-diagonal damping matrix is used in linear structural dynamics problem or when the non-linear internal force vector is a function of velocities. Convergence and spectral properties of the new algorithm are discussed and compared to those of some well-known algorithms. Furthermore, the validity and efficiency of the new algorithm are shown in a non-linear dynamic example by comparison of phase portraits.