APPLICATION OF INFLUENCE LINE ANALYSIS WITHOUT MODEL MODIFICATION TO PLANAR SHELL ELEMENT

Abstract

 In the design of structures subjected to moving loads, such as bridges, the influence line is indispensable. The same number of analyses as the number of nodes on the surface to which the load is possibly applied is required to obtain the influence line for finite element models. The Müller-Breslau principle, when used in finite element analysis, necessitates intricate model modification for introducing discontinuous displacements at the point of interest. To solve this problem, we proposed an influence line analysis method that can be effortlessly incorporated into standard finite element codes without necessitating model modifications. In this paper, we introduce a method for applying this technique to shell elements, which are commonly used in bridge finite element models.