Piecewise Linear function Error

[Abdur_2063]

Hi,

I am new to Mathcad and face some problems. I have attached a file in which I am trying to plot the displacement using the Piecewise Linear Interpolation method of structural dynamics. I have defined all variables and put them in the loop, but when I try to plot displacement (u) versus time (t1), I get an error "this value must be a vector".

I would really appreciate it if you could help me resolve this issue.

[Werner_E · Accepted solution]

Just had a quick glance at your sheet and here are a few remarks:

I had not looked further to spot the reason for the unit mismatch and had not looked further down in the sheet.

[Werner_E]

Looked further and spotted the unit mismatch. In the calculation of D1 you were missing dt.1 in the denominator.

See attached file.

I also assumed that you actually did not want u to be a function of the four arguments you provided and so I changed that , too.

[Abdur_2063]

Thank you very much @Werner_E. I really appreciate your quick response and solving my error. Yes, I will incorporate these changes.

Once again, thank you

Abdur

[Werner_E]

You're welcome.

Just an additional note: Its not necessary to apply vectorization when calculating u and u' as the calculation only deals with scalars.

[Abdur_2063]

Yes, I got it. 

Thanks for the help. It cleared my confusion.

Abdur