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Solver and Shell Element Performances for Curved Bridge Analysis |
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| Authors: | Cem Topkaya Ahmet Serhat Kalayc? Eric B Williamson |
| Affiliation: | 1Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical Univ., 06531 Ankara 06531, Turkey (corresponding author). E-mail: ctopkaya@metu.edu.tr 2Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Florida International Univ., Miami, FL 33174. 3Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, The Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712. |
| Abstract: | A study has been undertaken to investigate different solver and shell element performances for curved bridge finite-element analysis. Three sparse solvers were implemented into a bridge finite-element analysis code, and the solution times and memory requirements for typical bridges were compared. In addition, the use of four-node and nine-node shell elements in modeling was investigated for different mesh densities. Based on the comparative studies performed, modeling guidelines for practicing engineers have been developed and are presented herein. |
| Keywords: | Bridges composite Finite element method Computer software Shells |