stiffness matrix software

huangyhg

stiffness matrix software
im looking for a site for a good descriptive data about stiffness matrix in detail and would appreciate if you wuld tell me about the software (both shareware ans freeware)available.
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the stiffness matrix used in the matrix analysis of structures may be found in a number of good texts.  two texts which come to mind are:
matrix analysis of framed structures by gere and weaver.
matrix structural analysis by sack.
the best text i've found to date is 'matrix structural analysis' by w. mcguire and r.h. gallagher, j wiley and sons, 1979.
the complete element stiffness matrix is developed with many examples throughout the text which demonstrate the use of stiffness matrix methods.
as far as a stiffness matrix computer program goes, most universities that have civil and structural engineering programs also have simple matrix analysis programs which are used as teaching tools.
as i recall, uc davis uses a teaching program called bigsov, and uc berkeley uses ed wilson's program and teaching text for fea analysis.   other universities have their own computer matrix programs developed for instructional purposes.
these programs used to be written in fortran, but i believe most have been converted to c and c++.
a company by the name of mudd engineering company used to license software by the name 'mecstress'.   for an additional fee they would also provide the program code so that pre-processor and post-processor code could be written.   the program was written in c.   it was a dos-based program.   the cost of the program was about $500 in the late 80's and the additional source-code license was about $1,000.
since towerengineer has noted the educational sources i'm reminded of one site which has software you can download to help you learn about piecing together the matrix analysis method.  of course, included in this is a program for developing the stiffness matrix.  check out the civil engineering program at west point academy.
here is a good site for fem and stiffness matrix info:
i really appreciate the responce of my question. this is really a great site. two thumbs up for all the dedicated experts.
try the 'structural analysis on microcomputers' - chu-kia wang, it is simple and powerful, you'll learn about static, stiffness matrix algorithm for constructing the global structure matrix and how to write your own codes (basic) to do the job.
see also: computer analysis of structural systems by fleming.  you will learn to build your own matrix analysis code in either fortran or basic.