| Abstract: | Most of the step-by-step time integration algorithms for structural dynamics require an initial acceleration vector to be specified, in addition to displacement and velocity vectors. A consistent initial acceleration vector may be calculated by solving the equations of motion at the initial time, while a truncated initial acceleration vector is obtained by setting the acceleration values to zero. Although the truncated starting procedure decreases computational effort, it is shown to affect accuracy adversely. For the structural dynamics algorithms considered herein, the rate at which the numerical solution converges to the exact solution is O(Δt) when the truncated starting procedure is used, compared to O(Δt2) when consistent initial acceleration values are used. |
