Free vibration analysis of a structure with closed loops by the transfer influence coefficient method

The Transfer Influence Coefficient Method (TICM), which was developed by the authors, is an effective method to analyze dynamic responses of structures. The TICM has an advantage of computational speed and accuracy compared with conventional methods. However, the TICM was not available for the structures with closed loops such as truss or rahmen structures. In this paper, a new algorithm of the TICM applicable to such truss or racmen structures is presented. The algorithm presented here is shown for the in-plane free vibration analysis of two-dimensional stuctures to make the fundamental procedure clear. The validity of the newly presented algorithm is demonstrated through a numerical computation. The present algorithm remarkably has an advantage in computationl speed compared with a conventional routine.