Abstract
As analytical models become more numerous and complex, automation becomes essential to allow time for critical thought and innovation. This companion paper details a suite of tools that have been developed to enable advanced nonlinear site response analyses to be carried out in an automated fashion. These automation tools were built within various programming environments and have the ability to handle pre and post-processing tasks as well as interface directly with the finite element analysis program LS-DYNA. Pre-processing begins with a program written in Excel Visual Basic for Applications, which generates data to be fed to the processer (LS-DYNA) with a JavaScript API. After running the model, JavaScript is again employed to prepare the output data for the post-processor, which was written in Matlab. The functionality and development of each rapid automation tool is presented and the resulting time savings are discussed. Altogether, these rapid automation tools have decreased the required worker hours for pre-and post-processing of site response analyses from over two days to under half an hour per soil column.
