Using MASTAN2 to investigate the effect of applied forces on structures

The first 200 words of this essay...

University of Edinburgh

Computer Methods in Mechanical Engineering 3

Computing Project

Neil Gibson

0675180

20/02/09

1. INTRODUCTION

In the construction of any type of frame structure it is necessary to investigate the effects of any loads that may be acting on the structure and how it reacts against these loads. This is very important to investigate as it determines whether or not the structure will fail or deform in a critical way. MASTAN2 is a program within MATLAB, which allows the user to create a model of the frame to be analysed and apply the loads that will be acting on it to determine important information such as the bending moments, axial forces, shear forces and deflected shape to name a few.

The tasks for this project have been split into two questions; the aims of the first question are as follows:

* Create a plane frame in MASTAN2 with the specifications detailed in the question under the full factored load (fig. 1) and perform a first order analysis

* Determine the size of the joint stiffness matrix K and its partitions KFF, KFR, KRF, KRR

*