STUDIES ON FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS - LARGE DEFORMATION STRUCTURE ANALYSIS PROGRAM FOR SUSPENSION BRIDGE AND PLANE FRAME.

This program makes it possible to analyze the buckling behavior of cable or column which could not be conveniently analyzed by the theory of small displacement. A more accurate analysis can be obtained for a suspension bridge at erection and completed stages by application of this structural analysis program. Presently, IHI is erecting middle-size suspension bridges with spans of 400m. In these bridging works, only about a 5% error was noted between numerical results and actually measured data at the erection stage which creates maximum displacement at mid-span.