Author(s)

G. S. Salem & Y. F. Rashed

Abstract

A new model for connections between skeletal and continuum structural elements G. S. ~alem' & Y. F. Rashed ' Wessex Institute of Technology, Southampton, UK. 2 Dept. of Structural Engineering, Cairo Universiw, Giza, Egypt. Abstract This paper presents a new approach for the analysis of structures consist of continuum elements coupled with skeletal elements. The proposed approach is based on the analysis of continuum elements using the boundary element method (BEM), whereas the analysis of the skeletal elements is carried out using the traditional flexibilitylstiffness method. The assembly of the structural parts is carried out using the well known FEM assembly technique. Some different modeling adjustments were introduced to make such traditional concepts compatible with the boundary element method. The coupling between a skeletal frame with a 2D continuum structure is presented as an application to demonstrate the new concept. The obtained results are compared to those obtained using the fini

Keywords