A non-symmetric non-periodic B3-spline finite strip method

Abstract

In the earlier application of the spline finite strip method(FSM), the uniform B3-spline functions were used in the longitudinal direction while the conventional interpolation functions were used in the transverse direction to construct the displacement filed in a strip. To overcome the shortcoming of the uniform B3-spline, non-periodic B-spline was developed as the displacement function. The use of non-periodic B3-spline function requires no tangential vectors at both ends to interpolate the geometry of shell and the Kronecker delta property is also satisfied at the end boundaries. Recently, non-periodic spline FSM which was modified to have a multiple knots at the boundary was developed for the shell analysis and applied to the analysis of bridges. In the formulation of a non-symmetric spline finite strip method, the concepts of non-periodic B3-spline and a stress-resultant finite strip with drilling degrees of freedom for a shell are used. The introduction of non-symmetrically spaced knots in the longitudinal direction allows the selective local refinement to improve the accuracy of solution at the connections or at the location of concentrated load. A number of numerical tests were performed to prove the accuracy and efficiency of the present study.