Re: Structural analysis using Octave

[Juan Pablo Carbajal]

On Sun, Mar 26, 2017 at 7:51 PM, obakeng mokau <address@hidden> wrote:
> Dear Mr. Juan Pablo Carbajal,
>
> I recently downloaded the following Octave package,
> Name: Mechanics
> Version: 1.3.1
> Date: 2012-29-08
> Author: Juan Pablo Carbajal, Johan Beke
> Title: Classical Mechanics and Structural Analysis
> Description: Library with functions useful for numerical computation in
> classical mechanics and structural analysis.
>
> This has been helpful especially with beams, however I recently came across
> a problem whereby I am required to make a program to calculate the force in
> each member of a 2-dimensional truss structure based on the application of
> number of point loads, the program must automatically calculate the reaction
> forces and store them automatically in a vector column and it must also
> reject loads applied beyond the extent of the truss and also store that in a
> vector column and lastly it must find all the member forces and also store
> in a vector column.
> I have noticed that on this problem I cannot use the stiffness method, I am
> not able to compute a successful program as the problem require.
>
> I was hoping that I can get a little bit of insight on what to use and how
> to approach the problem, and even functions and loops to use. As the problem
> is beyond my capabilities as to programing and mechanics.
>
> Your help will be highly appreciated.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Obakeng Mokau
> address@hidden

Hello Obakeng,

I am sorry to hear that the structural functions in mechanics weren't
helpful. As of now, mechanics is unmantained, so it is unlikely there
will be any improvement.
I ma not aware of any other method but the direct calculation of
forces and torques on each node of the structure. This requires some
graph manipulation, but it is not utterly complicated. I did something
like this for tensegrity structures
https://github.com/kcaluwae/tensegrity-el-simulator
I hope that helps you.

Maybe someone else in the mailing list can give you better pointers.
Also, it is better to write to the mialing list directly, so you get
many people other than me to read your question.

Cheers