Open Access  

Abstract

Among the methods for structures analysis, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is widely used and provides solutions with a high accuracy. However, it is also necessary to find more reliable and simple methods for solving different specific problems. In this paper, the authors propose the method called Modified Discrete Element Method (DEM) to analyze the internal forces of steel beams, plane frames. Based on this method, the program KHUNGPHANG developed in Matlab 6.0 was built up to investigate a number of examples. Numerical results obtained shown the Modified Discrete Element Method is simple to use and effectiv.