Non-linear Structural Analysis as Real-Time Animation Borrowing from the Arcade

The paper describes a computational method commonly used in interactive computer graphics and games, and demonstrates its application to structural engineering problems, using a prototype program called Arcade. The method enables a new model of interaction in structural analysis, where the simulated structure responds to user input in real time, in the same way that computer games respond. The method shows good engineering accuracy in simple verification problems involving the non-linear phenomena of buckling and beam yielding. The method offers the potential to make non-linear, timehistory analysis a much more common method in engineering practice, and to bring a greater emphasis on non-linear, dynamic structural behaviour in structural education