Modal reaction method for modal participation factors in support motion problems

Abstract

An efficient method, called the modal reaction method, for calculating the modal participation factors for support motion problems is proposed. It is found that modal reactions at supports proportionally describe the magnitudes of the modal participation factors. Thus, the modal participation factor for support motion problems can be calculated very efficiently, saving more than 99 per cent, for the given example with 640 degreees of freedom, of the CPU time compared with using the popular quasistatic decomposition method.