Automatic time step control algorithms for structural dynamics Original Research Article

An adaptive time step size control strategy is presented for use with step-by-step time integration methods to solve structural dynamics problems. A simple and efficient local error estimate is derived for the newly developed generalized-α time integration method. By judicious choice of normalization, the local error estimate is related to a user-specified tolerance of desired number of time steps per period of effective system response frequency. Step size control algorithms are given that control the undesirable, frequent changes in time step size. Numerical results are presented that demonstrate the performance of the local error estimate and the time step size control strategy.