Nonlinear structural dynamic analysis by a stabilized central difference method

In this work, a simple stabilized central difference technique is discussed, to analyse nonlinear models. The proposed technique is unconditionally stable for linear systems and it provides enhanced stability features for nonlinear applications. The proposed method stands as a direct single step procedure, avoiding any iterative computations when solving nonlinear models; thus, it is very efficient. In addition, it is extremely accurate, providing much reduced period elongation and amplitude decay errors, compared to standard methods. The present work also introduces a criterion for updating the nonlinear system matrices, significantly reducing the computational complexity of the simulation and enhancing the efficiency of the technique. Numerical results are presented along the manuscript, illustrating the performance and accuracy of the proposed methodology.