Nonlinear analysis of thin shallow arches subject to snap-through using truss models

In this study a truss model is used for the geometrically nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of a thin shallow arch subject to snap-through. Thanks to the very simple geometry of a truss, the equilibrium conditions can be easily written and the global stiffness matrix can be easily updated with respect to the deformed structure, within each step of the analysis. A very coarse discretization is applied; so, in a very simple way, the high frequency modes are suppressed from the beginning and there is no need to develop a complicated reduced-order technique. Two short computer programs have been developed for the geometrically nonlinear static analysis by displacement control of a plane truss model of a structure as well as for its dynamic analysis by the step-by-step time integration algorithm of trapezoidal rule, combined with a predictor-corrector technique. These two short, fully documented computer programs are applied on the geometrically nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of a specific thin shallow arch subject to snap-through.