ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, the displacement transformation matrix [T D] was used to develop the structure stiffness matrix [K]. This concept is useful to understand the physical meaning of [T D] and [K]. However, when the structure to be analyzed becomes complex or large, development of [T D] itself will be difficult. Moreover, [T D] depends on the structure to be analyzed, i.e., [T D] developed for a structure cannot be used to analyze another structure composed of similar elements * . Hence, this procedure is not suitable for automatic calculation. In this chapter, an alternate procedure known as the direct stiffness method is introduced which is suitable for computer implementation. In this method, transformation matrix for each element of the structure is developed and they are used to develop [K].
