Practical advanced analysis software for nonlinear inelastic analysis of space steel structures

This paper presents a practical advanced analysis software which can be used for nonlinear inelastic analysis of space steel structures. The software employs the stability functions and the refined plastic hinge model to minimize modeling and computational time. The generalized displacement control method is adopted to solve the nonlinear equilibrium equations. This algorithm can accurately trace the equilibrium path of the nonlinear problem with multiple limit points and snap-back points. A user-friendly graphic interface of the software is developed to facilitate the modeling process and result interpretation of the problem. Several numerical examples are presented to verify the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed software by comparing the results predicted by the present software with those given by the ABAQUS and other available results.