Analysis of thin-walled box girders by parallel processing

This paper presents a substructuring analysis method for thin-walled box girders. The formulation of the problem and the independent computational tasks of each thin-walled substructure lend themselves to parallel processing. Instead of solving the condensed equilibrium equations in the traditional substructuring method, a mix of compatibility and equilibrium equations are employed. The major unknowns are the shear forces at the interfaces where the thin walls of the substructures join. The proposed substructuring method is general and can be performed by using commercial finite-element analysis software on microcomputers. Numerical examples of a thin-walled box girder are analyzed by the proposed method and the results are compared with classical solutions and other studies. The stresses and shear lag calculated by the proposed method compare favourably with those reported by other investigators. Estimates of reduction in computation time and computer memory for the stiffness matrix operation indicate that the method is numerically efficient.