Ant colony system for the formation of sparse flexibility matrices: Tetrahedron elements

Abstract

In this paper an efficient method is developed for the formation of null bases of finite element models (FEMs) composed of tetrahedron elements, corresponding to highly sparse and banded flexibility matrices. This is achieved by applying a modified ant colony system (ACS). The efficiency of the present method is illustrated through some examples. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.