Python Program for 3D Linear Static Reticular Structural Analysis Based on Finite Element Method

Resumo

Structural analysis in civil engineering is the method, in which, the response of a real-world structure
before its design and construction is predicted. For any non-simplistic structure, it's hard to conceive the analysis
by hand without relying on simplifications, that by themselves, sacrifices precision of the analytical solutions.
Therefore, to solve these structures quickly and accurately, a computational tool is needed. These computational
tools, usually available in commercial version, come at a high monetary cost, causing inaccessibility for students
to have access, even for confirming and/or learning purposes. In this regard, this paper proposes to develop a free
and open-source computational tool, able to make structural analysis of reticular structures in 3D linear-static
regime. To make it possible, the Finite Element Method for structural discretization and the Python programming
language were used. Analytical and numerical examples available in the literature were exhaustively tested. The
differences between the solutions obtained with the numerical tool and the reference solutions are in the range of
10-7 to 10-5 showing the good performance of the implemented tool for the tested examples.