Stability analysis of frame structures by bubble-function method

In the stability analysis of frame structures, the results by conventional finite element method (FEM) in which one member is taken as one element are sometimes unavailable. This paper took a new basic function system with bubble functions as the shape function of a bar element to develop a bubble function finite element method (BFEM), in which the bending and the geometric stiffness matrices were derived from the principle of virtual work. Bubble functions are finite element modes that are located entirely within a single element and are zero on boundaries of the element, but are nonzero at the other points. BFEM is as concise as conventional bar FEM but has better accuracy, and is adaptable to the buckling analysis of all kinds of frame structures. The use of bubble functions significantly improves the convergence of finite element analysis, and efficiently reduces the computation cost for the buckling analysis of frame structures. Numerical results show that using bubble functions in finite element for the stability analysis of structures is very efficient, especially for high-rise and large-scale frame structures.