Partitioned Integration Method Based on Newmark’s Scheme for Structural Dynamic Problems

Systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) arising from transient structural dynamics very often exhibit high-frequency/low-frequency and linear/nonlinear behaviors of subsets of the state variables. With this in mind, the paper resorts to the use of different time integrators with different time steps for subsystems, which tailors each method and its time step to the solution behaviors of the corresponding subsystem. In detail, a partitioned integration method is introduced which imposes continuity of velocities at the interface to couple arbitrary Newmark schemes with different time steps in different subdomains. It is proved that the velocity continuity of the method is the primal factor of its reduction to first_order accuracy. To maintain second-order accuracy without increasing drift and computational cost, a novel method with the acceleration continuity is proposed whose velocity constraint is also ensured by means of the projection strategy. Both its stability and accuracy properties are examined through numerical analysis of a Single-degree-of-freedom (DoF) split mass system. Finally, numerical validations are conducted on Single- and Two-DoF split mass systems and a four-DoF nonlinear structure showing the feasibility of the proposed method.