A direct stiffness analysis of a composite beam with partial interaction

The use of the conventional semi-analytical stiffness method in finite element analysis, in which interpolation polynomials are used to develop the stiffness relationships, leads to problems of curvature locking when beam-type elements are developed for composite members with partial interaction between the materials of which it is comprised. The curvature locking phenomenon that occurs for composite steel–concrete members is quite well reported, and the general approach to minimizing the undesirable ramifications of curvature locking has been to use higher-order polynomials with increasing numbers of internal nodes. This paper presents an alternate formulation based on a direct stiffness approach rather than starting from pre-defined interpolation polynomials, and which does not possess the undesirable locking characteristics. The formulation is based on a more general approach for a bi-material composite flexural member, whose constituent materials are joined by elastic shear connection so as to provide partial interaction. The stiffness relationships are derived, and these are applied to a simply supported and a continuous steel–concrete composite beam to demonstrate the efficacy of the method, and in particular its ability to model accurately both very flexible and very stiff shear connection that causes difficulties when implemented in competitive semi-analytical algorithms. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of piece‐wise linear weight functions for 2D 8‐node quadrilateral element in contact problems

The present study is a continuation of our previous work with the aim to reduce problems caused by standard higher order elements in contact problems. The difficulties can be attributed to the inherent property of the Galerkin method which gives uneven distributions of nodal forces resulting in oscillating contact pressures. The proposed remedy is use of piece‐wise linear weight functions. The methods to establish stiffness and/or mass matrix for 8‐node quadrilateral element in 2D are presented, i.e. the condensing and direct procedures. The energy and nodal displacement error norms are also checked to establish the convergence ratio. Interpretation of calculated contact pressures is discussed. Two new 2D 8‐node quadrilateral elements, QUAD8C and QUAD8D, are derived and tested in many examples, which show their good performance in contact problems. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Constitutive modelling and numerical simulation of multivariant phase transformation in superelastic shape‐memory alloys

This work concerns the micromechanical constitutive modelling, algorithmic implementation and numerical simulation of polycrystalline superelastic alloys under multiaxial loading. The model is formulated in finite deformations and incorporates the effect of texture. The numerical implementation is based on the constrained minimization of the Helmholtz free energy with dissipation. Simulations are conducted for thin tubes of Nitinol under tension–torsion, as well as for a simplified model of a biomedical stent. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduced modified quadratures for quadratic membrane finite elements

Reduced integration is frequently used in evaluating the element stiffness matrix of quadratically interpolated finite elements. Typical examples are the serendipity (Q8) and Lagrangian (Q9) membrane finite elements, for which a reduced 2 × 2 Gauss–Legendre integration rule is frequently used, as opposed to full 3 × 3 Gauss–Legendre integration. This ‘softens’ these element, thereby increasing accuracy, albeit at the introduction of spurious zero energy modes on the element level. This is in general not considered problematic for the ‘hourglass’ mode common to Q8 and Q9 elements, since this spurious mode is non‐communicable. The remaining two zero energy modes occurring in the Q9 element are indeed communicable. However, in topology optimization for instance, conditions may arise where the non‐communicable spurious mode associated with the elements becomes activated. To effectively suppress these modes altogether in elements employing quadratic interpolation fields, two modified quadratures are employed herein. For the Q8 and Q9 membrane elements, the respective rules are a five and an eight point rule. As compared to fully integrated elements, the new rules enhance element accuracy due to the introduction of soft, higher‐order deformation modes. A number of standard test problems reveal that element accuracy remains comparable to that of the under‐integrated counterparts. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crushing behaviour of the energy absorbing 'tensor skin' panels

ABSTRACT Research results concerning the simulation of the crushing behaviour of composite systems with energy absorption characteristics are presented in the present work. The study is focused on the ‘tensor skin’ concept, an energy absorbing composite system that was originally developed to improve the crashworthiness of helicopters under water impact and which is promising for utilization in the construction of the lower part of composite fuselage aircraft. The ‘tensor skin’ concept comprises a folded or corrugated composite construction, which upon loading unfolds by forming ‘plastic hinges’, leading to an increase in the load bearing capability of the structure. The numerical modelling issues and the critical aspects of the simulation are discussed. Verification of the numerical simulation procedure is performed by experimental work. The experimental results utilized to assess and validate the numerical procedure were derived within the European Research Project ‘Design for Crash Survivability – CRASURV’ (BRITE – Aeronautics Area). The results of the simulations are generally in good agreement with experimental data.     

Significance of the elastic peak stress evaluated by FE analyses at the point of singularity of sharp V-notched components

The paper presents an expression useful to estimate the notch stress intensity factor (NSIF) from finite element analyses carried out by using a mesh pattern with a constant element size. The evaluation of the NSIF from a numerical analysis of the local stress field usually requires very refined meshes and then large computational effort. The usefulness of the presented expression is that (i) only the elastic peak stress numerically evaluated at the V‐notch tip is needed and no longer the whole stress–distance set of data; (ii) the adopted meshes are rather coarse if compared to those necessary for the evaluation of the whole local stress field. The proposed expression needs the evaluation of a virtual V‐notch tip radius, i.e. the radius which would produce the same elastic peak stress than that calculated by FEM at the sharp V‐notch tip by means of a given mesh pattern. Once such a radius has been theoretically determined for a given geometry, the expression can be applied in a wide range of notch depths and opening angles.     

开流形的曲率与拓扑

应用比较几何的方法研究了完备非紧且具有特定曲率条件的黎曼流形，证明了在一定Pinching条件限制下，流形具有有限拓扑型或者微分同胚于R^n。     

Learning Automata from Ordered Examples

Connectionist learning models have had considerable empirical success, but it is hard to characterize exactly what they learn. The learning of finite-state languages (FSL) from example strings is a domain which has been extensively studied and might provide an opportunity to help understand connectionist learning. A major problem is that traditional FSL learning assumes the storage of all examples and thus violates connectionist principles. This paper presents a provably correct algorithm for inferring any minimum-state deterministic finite-state automata (FSA) from a complete ordered sample using limited total storage and without storing example strings. The algorithm is an iterative strategy that uses at each stage a current encoding of the data considered so far, and one single sample string. One of the crucial advantages of our algorithm is that the total amount of space used in the course of learning for encoding any finite prefix of the sample is polynomial in the size of the inferred minimum state deterministic FSA. The algorithm is also relatively efficient in time and has been implemented. More importantly, there is a connectionist version of the algorithm that preserves these properties. The connectionist version requires much more structure than the usual models and has been implemented using the Rochester Connectionist Simulator. We also show that no machine with finite working storage can iteratively identify the FSL from arbitrary presentations.