Structural modal reanalysis using automated matrix permutation and substructuring

In this paper, a new efficient method for structural modal reanalysis is proposed, which can handle large finite element (FE) models requiring frequent design modifications. The global FE model is divided into a residual part not to be modified and a target part to be modified. Then, an automated matrix permutation and substructuring algorithm is applied to these parts independently. The reduced model for the residual part is calculated and saved in the initial analysis, and the target part is reduced repeatedly, whenever design modifications occur. Then, the reduced model for the target part is assembled with that of the residual part already saved; thus, the final reduced model corresponding to the new design is obtained easily and rapidly. Here, the formulation of the proposed method is derived in detail, and its computational efficiency and reanalysis ability are demonstrated through several engineering problems, including a topological modification.