A study of the stability of subcycling algorithms in structural dynamics (Q1971462)

The author considers the native of two algorithms used in structural dynamics (Belytchko, Smolinski/Sleith). He points out that the latter is stable, and produces amplification matrices. He illustrates the ideas by using a system consisting of two unequal masses and three springs. It is suggested that the probability of encountering an unstable state when the Belytchko algorithm is used is small, and it is suggested that the introduction of a constraint equation when using finite element methods may cause instability.