Abstract
This paper presents an application of the similar mesh generation method that divides a given system into the subparts with the similar stiffness matrix in the FEM analysis of tapered beam structures subjected to lateral load. A favorable characteristic of this method is its ability to perform an efficient static condensation of the similar stiffness matrix in the FEM analysis. Several problems including material non-linearity are solved, which demonstrates the validity of the proposed method. These results are compared with those obtained using the finite element package program MARC
