Development and implementation of software using the Direct Stiffness Method and Symbolic MATLAB proposing the improvement of teaching and learning processes of matrix methods in civil engineering graduation classes

Resumo

The emergence of new programming languages and philosophies allowed the possibility of more
efficient calculation techniques in various engineering fields. Such techniques most often displays the result of
processing without making possible for the user to visualize the process itself. This can bring difficulties to fully
understand the method, impairing didactic purposes that might involve its use. The AESYM is a new structural
analysis program written in MatLab language which uses the Direct Stiffness Method. This method consists in
analyzing reticulated structures, statically determinate or indeterminate, based on the superposition principle,
considering linearity between actions and displacements. The method assumes that the effects of rotation and
translation of the bar elements in given structure due to multiple stimuli can be obtained by the combination of the
effects caused by each stimulus individually. With the AESYM, the user can follow the calculation process both
symbolically and numerically, allowing the understanding of the linear elastic analysis in a didactic and visual
way. This makes possible for the user to observe the global stiffness matrix formation process along with its
properties, displacements and forces in the elements through the resolution of the equation which governs the
structure’s internal behavior. The AESYM has, therefore, practical use in matrix methods teaching-learning
process within graduation level engineering courses.