Element-based node selection method for reduction of eigenvalue problems

Dynamic analysis of structural systems requires a considerable amount of computing time. Because the dynamic behavior of a structure is dominated by lower modes, all of the eigenvalues of the system need not be calculated. The previously proposed methods approximate the eigenvalues of a global system but they take great amount of computing time to construct a reduced system. An element-level energy estimation technique is proposed to construct a reduced finite element model. Through several examples, it is demonstrated that the proposed method effectively saves computational time and accurately predicts the eigenvalues of a global system.