Research Paper

A Numerical Model for Stability Analysis of

Pre-Cracked Beam-Columns.

^*Peter N. Jiki¹ and Usman Karim²

1 Department of Civil Engineering University of Agriculture, PMB 2373, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria

    2  Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Benue State University Makurdi, Benue State Nigeria

*Corresponding author

   Abstract

The paper reports results of the stability analysis of pre-cracked beam-columns. A stiffness reduction parameter due to pre-crack is first calculated, which is used in the equilibrium equations for buckling analysis. Stiffness and stability matrices are derived from the resulting equilibrium equations using the finite difference procedure. An object oriented code in java is developed based on the inverse power method for the extraction of the smallest eigen value corresponding to the critical load. The calculated parameter is then used to calculate the reduced buckling load due to pre-crack. Results obtained compare well with published results in the literature. It is concluded that the parameter k is a good indicator for monitoring stiffness degradation due to pre-crack and that java programming language which is mainly used for commercial and internet applications is a candidate tool for fracture mechanics computations.

Key words: Pre-crack, stability, Beam-columns, Java code, Stiffness reduction.