Linear Analysis

What is linear analysis? A proportional analysis. For example if I say that a moment
M is generating a deflection of D, and what would be the moment acting on the beam
if the deflection is 2D? It will be 2M. Quite simple right? This analysis is called linear
analysis. All the principle of superposition are also valid.

Let us say dead load is causing a beam deflection the beam by 1" and live load is
causing a deflection of 0.5" and if I ask you what will by the sum of deflection cause
by the two loads? It will be 1 + 0.5 = 1.5". This is pretty simple, principle of
superposition.

This all can happen because the stresses are proportional to strains. Take an example
of mathematical equation of a straight line.

y=mxy=mx
Now if I say that the value of slope is known and I give a particular value of x, can you
figure out the value y? Of course yes. And this can be done in a single step. No
repetition is required. Now replace x with strain and y with stress and m is the
stiffness of material. The equation of the same straight line becomes:

σ=Es ϵσ=Es ϵ
So this is why linear analysis is simple. If you know the deformation for 1 unit of load
and if you wish to find out the deformation for 5 units of load, you just multiply the
deformation by 5 and you have your results. This will reduce the time and effort put
into analysis. It will give you sometimes conservative results and sometimes
inaccurate as well. (I will justify inaccurate in Nonlinear analysis)
Whatever we lean in under grad is linear analysis. You calculate the forces, you
design the section and you are done. We do not consider any cracking effects not do
we look for strength loss.

We are still doing linear analysis because we also consider material safety factors and
specified properties. The actual strength of material is actually greater than the
specified strength and specified strength is the strength without considering any
factors of safety.

Nonlinear analysis

1. Material Nonlinearity
When the materials move into the zone beyond it's yield strengths, it no longer
behaves in a linear fashion. There are many things that happen when material go into
this zone:

 Permanent deformations: This means that when the material is

unloaded it will not go back to it's original shape or position. For example if
you take a plastic bag and stretch it, after a certain point even if you release
the bag you will see the permanent stretch marks. This is called permanent
deformation.


 Cracking: Generally this occurs in linear design as well, but we neglect the
cracking of concrete, even though we still consider the reduced stiffness of
members while doing seismic design, but still it is an assumed value. While
in nonlinear analysis we monitor the cracking and so concrete will crack
and member will start losing its stiffness.
 Beam rotations: When a beam is subjected to moments greater than it's
capacity, it no longer resists the moments, instead it rotates and forms a
plastic hinge and start dissipating energy. This is a part of material
nonlinearity but for beams it is called backbone curve (aka F-D
relationship). In case of linear design we do not case for anything greater
than the capacity of the member.
 
 Energy Dissipation: In linear analysis, energy dissipation is in the form
of strain energy, while in case of nonlinear analysis it is in the form of
inelastic energy in addition to strain energy dissipation.

These were a few generalized things that came to my mind while looking at nonlinear
analysis.

This is what happens in nonlinear analysis. If a member goes beyond its capacity
(elastic limit), it will experience some sort of strain hardening or cracking and it will
start losing its stiffness which also means that the total stiffness of the structure or
building is also changing. Thus what you do is, you load the structure and see if it
went into nonlinear stage, if it does then we see how much the material has cracked
also know as softening of structure. If the loss in stiffness is significant and the
results or the energy balance do not converge, we iterate the same process and do the
analysis again. This cycle will go on till the desired accuracy is achieved. Thus a
nonlinear analysis takes longer than a linear analysis because of such loses in
stiffness and its iterative nature. But this was talking about a nonlinear static
analysis.
As I mentioned before, a linear analysis cannot give a complete picture as what can
happen to the structure if an earthquake hits. Today we have the ability to create a
mathematical model which to around 90% of the accuracy can give us results which
again depends on modelling assumptions and the detail at which it is done. But it
gives us an idea whether everything is okay or not. But to everyone's utmost surprise,
the linear dynamic analysis gives a far off result. For example, in case of a beam
which is subjected to earthquake shakes. It will experience some force but that force
is limited. And we design the beam to that limited force. When we check the same
beam for actual earthquake (The one which is not limited) and see check the beam,
many times structural engineers find that the beam is actually getting shattered. Now
with increased load we definitely expect some rotations but shattering of beam is just
not acceptable.

So this is the benefit of nonlinear analysis over linear analysis.

2. Geometric Nonlinearity

The most famous geometric nonlinearity is P-Delta analysis. A force follower

approach. (I am copying the data from my other answer over here)

P Delta analysis is quite a traditional form of force follower analysis. It is also called
"Geometric Nonlinearity" because as the deflection increases you again have to test
the additional forces generated by P-delta effects. A force follower analysis is the one
in which, when a member loses its stability the force follows the deformed member
and creates further more instability very quickly. A P-Delta analysis is not as simple
as it sounds and its effects will be very adverse if neglected. These effects will be more
severe in case of soft lateral force resisting systems like moment frames as compared
to stiff systems like core wall systems and braced frames.

Talking about P-Delta, P delta is a term coined from P that is load and delta is the
lateral deformation. These lateral deformations are more lethal in case of
earthquakes and not so much in case of wind.

What is the significance of it's study? Is it just limited to design of columns?

Something like this:
What it does is, it generates additional shear forces and bending moments in
columns because of the deformed shape. The moments generated will be equal to the
load acting on the column times the horizontal displacement. Now we have to check
the column capacity particularly in case of slender columns so that they do not fail in
case of these additional moments along with the axial loads. This can be checked
with P-M interaction diagram of the column cross section.

Just make sure that the load point lies inside the P-M interaction boundary of the
column.

In addition to this, the P-Delta effects has one more adverse effects, specifically in
tall buildings. As we know, in case of earthquake a building deforms. And this
deformation is huge and the structure is already in its inelastic zone with concrete
cracking. This means that the structure is already losing its stiffness. Now the P-
Delta shear (The force that is generated at the top and bottom of the column because
of P-delta moments), generates an additional demand for lateral shear resistance of
the structural system. This additional demand is in addition to the earthquake shear
demands. Which means that if we have not consider the P-delta demands and if we
provided in sufficient shear resistance, than the building might collapse, similar to
this:

As you can see, it is very severe.

Now, the effect of P-Delta shear demands is more in case of moment resisting frames
as compared to shear core systems. The reason is, moment frame is already moment
governed and so it is a soft system. A soft system tends to drift more in case of lateral
load and more drift means more "delta" which means more shear and moment
demands because of the P-delta effects. While in case of shear core, the structural
system itself is very stiff and as the name suggests, a shear core system is resisting
shear forces so it will not impact the structural system to a great extent.

Refer to chapter 2.3 in the following guidelines for more understanding of P-Delta
effects as they will show you some charts of strength deterioration of the system.

http://peer.berkeley.edu/tbi/wp-...

Now how does a computer program deals with everything? Do we have to do

something special to do nonlinear analysis? Or all computer program does that by
default?

By default, a computer program is set for linear analysis. Quick and easy method and
for most of the small structures it will be more than good approach.
Can the same model be used for nonlinear analysis? No, you will have to add a ton of
information into the computer model to do nonlinear analysis. You will have to add
stress strain curve for concrete, for steel. You will have to define backbone curves for
beams. You will have to define P-M-M back bone curves for columns. You will have
to define fiber elements for shear walls. You will be defining P-delta columns. You
will be defining the limit states. The back bone curves for coupling beams for
different aspect ratios are different. So all in all, to create and test one nonlinear
model, it will take you about a month. Analysis will take a day. And processing the
results will take another day.

What does program do is. It will start with the initial stiffness of the building which is
right because before a building is loaded how can there be any cracks and loss in
stiffness? Then the building is loaded with incremental loads. And it will go on
increasing the loads till it reaches the limit of linearity. As soon as it hits the
nonlinear zones, it will start iterating the model. Load the structure calculate the
strains and deflections and stiffness. Loss in stiffness -> Yes? Iterate the same step.
Loss in stiffness -> No? Go to the next load step and so on.

Nonlinear analysis is a complex task. It is the best example of "Half knowledge" is

dangerous. If you do not know anything about nonlinearity then first learn it and
then perform analysis. If you do it before that you will set up incorrect model and you
will not be able to interpret the results.

Jinal Doshi, Structural engineer and founder of structural madness

Answered Mar 10, 2016 · Upvoted by SoumyaKanti Dhavala, M.Tech Structural Engineering, Center
for Environmental Planning and Technology University (2018) and Sid Siddiq, M.Tech. Structural
Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore (2019)