Nonlinear FEM Analysis of Arch and Frame Structures Applying Modified Potentials

Often slender arch and frame structures are designed by norm-based methods that are not very sophisticated and only to a modest degree model the kinematic nonlinearties (the socalled column effect) satisfactorily. Such an example can be seen in the great hall Gigantium near Aalborg. Partial results from the project are published in conference proceedings. Within the project a FEM program was developed taking into account buckling instability as well as plane instabilities. Lagrange multiplicators to handle various difficulties such as locking and nonfulfilment of the rigid-body criterion are used in the program. The study has been publiced in Proceedings of the 18th Canadian Congress of Applied Mechanics, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, June 3-7, 2001, pp. 31-32 (extended abstract) and an extended version will be published in proceedings of The International DCAMM Symposium, July 2002, in Lyngby, Denmark