Aextension for the Applied Element Method (AEM) for structural analysis is introduced. This paper introduces a numerical approach to deal with detailed structural collapse process. Contact and collision forced are considered in the analysis through collision springs, which are added at the locations where collision or recontact between elements occurs. The effects of separation, recontact and collision can be considered easily with high accuracy and without large increase in the CPU time. The main advantage of the proposed technique compared to the extended Distinct Element Method (EDEM) is that the time increment can be much larger than the EDEM.
Hatem Tagel-Din and Kimiro Meguro: Applied Element Simulation for Collapse Analysis of Structures, Bulletin of Earthquake Resistant Structure Research Center, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo , No. 32, March, 1999.