Progressive collapse simulation of truss structures based on the Finite Particle Method

This paper presents the progressive failure simulation of truss structures using the Finite Particle Method (FPM). Three major difficulties in structural collapse simulation, namely the description of dynamic behaviors of structures, geometric and material nonlinearity and fracture, are considered in collapse process. Different from the traditional finite element method generated from continuum mechanics and variational principle, the FPM is based on the vector mechanics. It discretizes the structure with finite particles and enforces equilibrium on each particle. The FPM is very advantageous in the simulation of structural strong nonlinearity and discontinuity behaviors. This paper provides the basic idea on how to handle the major difficulties above-mentioned in the collapse analysis using the FPM. A numerical example is also given to show the capability of the FPM in the progressive collapse analysis of truss structures.