The transformation of second-order linear systems into independent equations

Abstract

The class of second-order linear dynamical sys tems is considered. A method and algorithm are presented to transform any system with n degrees of freedom into n independent second-order equations. The conversion utilizes a real, invertible but nonlinear mapping and is applicable to practically every linear system. Two examples from earthquake engineering are provided to indicate the utility of this approach. © 2011 Societ y for Industrial and Applied Mathematics