Nonlinear analysis of trusses through energy minimization

Equilibrium configurations of structures are those that make the potential energy of the system a relative minimum. Based on this principle an adaptive local search procedure is developed where better and better shapes are sought with smaller potential until a relative minimum is reached. The algorithm is applied to trusses and it has been shown that satisfactory results can be obtained for problems with material and geometrical nonlinearities. The method is capable of giving deflected shapes of structures even if they have configurational instability and it can be generalized to be applied to analysis of more general types of structures.