Newmark-beta method

The Newmark-beta method is a method of numerical integration used to solve certain differential equations. It is widely used in numerical evaluation of the dynamic response of structures and solids such as in finite element analysis to model dynamic systems. The method is named after Nathan M. Newmark,^[1] former Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, who developed it in 1959 for use in structural dynamics. The semi-discretized structural equation is a second order ordinary differential equation system,

${\displaystyle M{\ddot {u}}+C{\dot {u}}+f^{\textrm {int}}(u)=f^{\textrm {ext}}\,}$

here ${\displaystyle M}$ is the mass matrix, ${\displaystyle C}$ is the damping matrix, ${\displaystyle f^{\textrm {int}}}$ and ${\displaystyle f^{\textrm {ext}}}$ are internal force per unit displacement and external forces, respectively.

Using the extended mean value theorem, the Newmark-${\displaystyle \beta }$ method states that the first time derivative (velocity in the equation of motion) can be solved as,

${\displaystyle {\dot {u}}_{n+1}={\dot {u}}_{n}+\Delta t~{\ddot {u}}_{\gamma }\,}$

where

${\displaystyle {\ddot {u}}_{\gamma }=(1-\gamma ){\ddot {u}}_{n}+\gamma {\ddot {u}}_{n+1}~~~~0\leq \gamma \leq 1}$

therefore

${\displaystyle {\dot {u}}_{n+1}={\dot {u}}_{n}+(1-\gamma )\Delta t~{\ddot {u}}_{n}+\gamma \Delta t~{\ddot {u}}_{n+1}.}$

Because acceleration also varies with time, however, the extended mean value theorem must also be extended to the second time derivative to obtain the correct displacement. Thus,

${\displaystyle u_{n+1}=u_{n}+\Delta t~{\dot {u}}_{n}+{\begin{matrix}{\frac {1}{2}}\end{matrix}}\Delta t^{2}~{\ddot {u}}_{\beta }}$

where again

${\displaystyle {\ddot {u}}_{\beta }=(1-2\beta ){\ddot {u}}_{n}+2\beta {\ddot {u}}_{n+1}~~~~0\leq 2\beta \leq 1}$

The discretized structural equation becomes

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}&{\dot {u}}_{n+1}={\dot {u}}_{n}+(1-\gamma )\Delta t~{\ddot {u}}_{n}+\gamma \Delta t~{\ddot {u}}_{n+1}\\&u_{n+1}=u_{n}+\Delta t~{\dot {u}}_{n}+{\frac {\Delta t^{2}}{2}}\left((1-2\beta ){\ddot {u}}_{n}+2\beta {\ddot {u}}_{n+1}\right)\\&M{\ddot {u}}_{n+1}+C{\dot {u}}_{n+1}+f^{\textrm {int}}(u_{n+1})=f_{n+1}^{\textrm {ext}}\,\end{aligned}}}$

Explicit central difference scheme is obtained by setting ${\displaystyle \gamma =0.5}$ and ${\displaystyle \beta =0}$

Average constant acceleration (Middle point rule) is obtained by setting ${\displaystyle \gamma =0.5}$ and ${\displaystyle \beta =0.25}$