It is very difficult to provide analytical displacement solutions for complex bending structures, such as beams with variable cross-sections, in structural analysis. The common methods used for such analysis—the direct integration method and the conventional graph multiplication method—have disadvantages of inefficiency and large computational costs. Therefore, a new approach called the stiffness decomposition method was proposed to overcome these shortcomings. The fundamental principle of this new approach was derived based on the unit load method. The general calculation equation of displacement was derived and provided for general n-segment complex bending structures, and an operational procedure for this method was constructed to facilitate its application. Then, the method was applied to two case studies involving classic complex bending structures. The results showed the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method. The stiffness decomposition method was simpler and more efficient than the other two methods: the number of computations required by the stiffness decomposition method accounted for only 47.4% to 84.0% of the number of computations required by the other methods in the two case studies. The clear mathematical and mechanical derivation of the proposed method makes it easy to understand. Furthermore, the simplicity and practicality of this method make it extensively applicable.
The load and resistance factor design (LRFD) method is normally used to design B-regions of reinforced concrete (RC) flexural members. The design includes many checks corresponding to different limit states. The LRFD method requires many loop calculation steps in the design, demonstrating its relative inefficiency. It cannot be applied to compare limit states directly and quantitatively. Different design limit states are separated and isolated. How to improve the analytical calculation efficiency of the LRFD method and to realize direct and quantitative comparisons between limit states are very important problems in structural engineering. This paper presents an innovative unified flexural resistance design (UFRD) method and a unified flexural resistance evaluation (UFRE) frame to solve these problems to some extent. The main contents include the unified flexural resistance (UFR) principles, formulas for the unified flexural resistance design (UFRD) method, the operation procedure to facilitate its usage, the UFRE framework to compare limit states, and three examples. The results show that the UFRD method can provide the same design outcomes as the LRFD one. However, UFRD calculations are simpler, requiring at most 20% of the calculation steps of the LRFD method. The UFRE frame can make different limit states compare with each other directly and quantitatively, which cannot be realized by the LRFD method. It helps expose some potential and insufficient flexural resistance hazards for some limit states, such as the only 10% relative strength reservation of one example. Thus, the UFRD method and the UFRE frame supplement and develop the LRFD method to some degree. The simplicity and practicality of the approach and the frame make them appropriate for many applications.
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