Analysis of the Response of a Frame Structure during an Earthquake Using the Transfer Matrix Method of a Multibody System

Finite-element methods such as ANSYS are widely used in traditional structural dynamic analysis. The low computational efficiency of ANSYS is a hindrance in finite-element methods when computing the responses of special engineering structures. This paper details an innovative study in which the transfer matrix method of multibody system (MS-TMM) is introduced to analyze the dynamic response of civil engineering structures. Although the responses obtained by the MS-TMM are similar to the responses obtained by ANSYS, ANSYS requires a larger computation time. The results indicate that the MS-TMM can satisfy the computation efficiency and calculation accuracy requirements. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.