Abstract
The purpose of this study is to establish a non-iterative efficient computational scheme to trace the nonlinear finite displacement behaviour of space frames, using the tangent stiffness equation of linearized fininte displacement of a thin-walled elastic straight beam element. Direct solution of the tangent stiffness equation is used, imposing adequately small increments. Local coordinates are updated at each incremental step, utilizing a vector multiplication scheme. Numerical results for a wide variety of spatial structures are given, demonstrating the versatility of the present scheme.
