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I'm trying to capture the force-deformation response of a zeroLengthContact element to represent what is going on in the "spring" at the contact surface. The only element recorder I can get to work at the moment is force. Are there any other recorder options that are known to work with thi...

Is there anywhere to download older versions of OpenSees? I've been working with Gang Wang on getting the zeroLengthContact element to work correctly in my model, and it appears to be running smoothly on his version 2.1.0 but not converging on my 2.2.0.


Thanks.

Is there a way to output the initial nodal coordinates in the global system? I'm building a complex model with hundreds of nodes and I'd like to plot them in MATLAB to ensure my model was built correctly before I continue with the analysis.

Thanks for the help.

Here is an example... recorder Element -file Output.dat -ele 547 557 569 section 5 deformation Your best bet is to export all of the integration points in one recorder object and pick out the points of interest with a program like Matlab. Simply replace "section 5" with "section all&q...

I believe the difference refers to the way the analysis increments from the current configuration towards the next converged point of a force-displacement relationship. Meaning the force-based element uses an increment in force and the displacement-based uses an increment in displacement. You can ob...

Hi Gang, Thanks so much for your reply. My goal is to perform dynamic time history analyses of a structure modeled with only quadrilateral elements with zeroLengthContact elements connecting them. I have been able to get my 2 block system to work under a dynamic analysis, however even for a large sc...

I'm trying to construct a model of one block resting on top of another that I could then apply a lateral load to. I'm using quadrilateral elements and zeroLengthContact elements to connect the blocks. If I apply the lateral load in one load step it seems to work fine. However, if I attempt to apply ...

In response to the zeroLengthContact element, if I want to build my model in a 2D system with 3 DOF, would that mean I need to use the zeroLengthContact3D? OpenSees didnt like the 2D since each node had 3 DOFs.

I am interested in modeling a frame constructed of stone elements (see photo below). I would like to have a frictional interface between elements that would allow for shifting of blocks when subject to lateral loads and ideally fail the structure to the point where a frame beam would fall off it's s...