Component-mode synthesis method for coupled continuous and FE discretized substructures

The component-mode synthesis method is adopted in order to reduce the number of degrees-of-freedom of structures composed of two or more substructures, without losing the mean physical characteristics of the structure. In this method the substructures are usually modelled by means of finite element (FE) approach. In this paper one of the two substructures is modelled as a continuous beam and a variant of the traditional component-mode synthesis method is treated. The proposed method evaluates the eigenfunctions of the continuous modelled substructure in such a way that the discontinuities in bending moment and shear force along the distributed parameter substructure, due to the contact with the discretized one, can be captured with great accuracy employing just very few eigenfunctions. Finally, the numerical applications show the superiority of the proposed approach over the traditional ones. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.