Symmetry and structures

The mathematical models of many practical structures have various kinds of symmetry, which can be used in order to reduce the computational time for their analysis. In this paper, efficient methods are presented for eigenproblems involved in structural mechanics. Special canonical forms are presented which employ a decomposition process followed by special healings of the corresponding graph models. Four such forms are introduced in this paper and applied to eigensolution that occur in the free vibration and stability analysis of frames. The proposed methods are illustrated by means of simple examples.