A refined non‐linear non‐conforming triangular plate/shell element

A refined non‐conforming triangular plate/shell element for geometric non‐linear analysis of plates/shells using the total Lagrangian/updated Lagrangian approach is constructed in this paper based on the refined non‐conforming element method for geometric non‐linear analysis. The Allman's triangular plane element with vertex degrees of freedom and the refined triangular plate‐bending element RT9 are used to construct the present element. Numerical examples demonstrate that the accuracy of the new element is quite high in the geometric non‐linear analysis of plates/shells. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A non‐iterative finite element method for inverse heat conduction problems

A non‐iterative, finite element‐based inverse method for estimating surface heat flux histories on thermally conducting bodies is developed. The technique, which accommodates both linear and non‐linear problems, and which sequentially minimizes the least squares error norm between corresponding sets of measured and computed temperatures, takes advantage of the linearity between computed temperatures and the instantaneous surface heat flux distribution. Explicit minimization of the instantaneous error norm thus leads to a linear system, i.e. a matrix normal equation, in the current set of nodal surface fluxes. The technique is first validated against a simple analytical quenching model. Simulated low‐noise measurements, generated using the analytical model, lead to heat transfer coefficient estimates that are within 1% of actual values. Simulated high‐noise measurements lead to h estimates that oscillate about the low‐noise solution. Extensions of the present method, designed to smooth oscillatory solutions, and based on future time steps or regularization, are briefly described. The method's ability to resolve highly transient, early‐time heat transfer is also examined; it is found that time resolution decreases linearly with distance to the nearest subsurface measurement site. Once validated, the technique is used to investigate surface heat transfer during experimental quenching of cylinders. Comparison with an earlier inverse analysis of a similar experiment shows that the present method provides solutions that are fully consistent with the earlier results. Although the technique is illustrated using a simple one‐dimensional example, the method can be readily extended to multidimensional problems. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element formulation of exact non‐reflecting boundary conditions for the time‐dependent wave equation

A modified version of an exact Non‐reflecting Boundary Condition (NRBC) first derived by Grote and Keller is implemented in a finite element formulation for the scalar wave equation. The NRBC annihilate the first N wave harmonics on a spherical truncation boundary, and may be viewed as an extension of the second‐order local boundary condition derived by Bayliss and Turkel. Two alternative finite element formulations are given. In the first, the boundary operator is implemented directly as a ‘natural’ boundary condition in the weak form of the initial–boundary value problem. In the second, the operator is implemented indirectly by introducing auxiliary variables on the truncation boundary. Several versions of implicit and explicit time‐integration schemes are presented for solution of the finite element semidiscrete equations concurrently with the first‐order differential equations associated with the NRBC and an auxiliary variable. Numerical studies are performed to assess the accuracy and convergence properties of the NRBC when implemented in the finite element method. The results demonstrate that the finite element formulation of the (modified) NRBC is remarkably robust, and highly accurate. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical finite element formulation of the Schapery non‐linear viscoelastic material model

This study presents a numerical integration method for the non‐linear viscoelastic behaviour of isotropic materials and structures. The Schapery's three‐dimensional (3D) non‐linear viscoelastic material model is integrated within a displacement‐based finite element (FE) environment. The deviatoric and volumetric responses are decoupled and the strain vector is decomposed into instantaneous and hereditary parts. The hereditary strains are updated at the end of each time increment using a recursive formulation. The constitutive equations are expressed in an incremental form for each time step, assuming a constant incremental strain rate. A new iterative procedure with predictor–corrector type steps is combined with the recursive integration method. A general polynomial form for the parameters of the non‐linear Schapery model is proposed. The consistent algorithmic tangent stiffness matrix is realized and used to enhance convergence and help achieve a correct convergent state. Verifications of the proposed numerical formulation are performed and compared with a previous work using experimental data for a glassy amorphous polymer PMMA. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐dimensional unsteady heat conduction analysis with heat generation by triple‐reciprocity BEM

If the initial temperature is assumed to be constant, a domain integral is not needed to solve unsteady heat conduction problems without heat generation using the boundary element method (BEM).However, with heat generation or a non‐uniform initial temperature distribution, the domain integral is necessary. This paper demonstrates that two‐dimensional problems of unsteady heat conduction with heat generation and a non‐uniform initial temperature distribution can be solved approximately without the domain integral by the triple‐reciprocity boundary element method. In this method, heat generation and the initial temperature distribution are interpolated using the boundary integral equation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The lattice Boltzmann method and the finite volume method applied to conduction–radiation problems with heat flux boundary conditions

This article deals with the implementation of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) in conjunction with the finite volume method (FVM) for the solution of conduction–radiation problems with heat flux and temperature boundary conditions. Problems in 1‐D planar and 2‐D rectangular geometries have been considered. The radiating–conducting participating medium is absorbing, emitting and scattering. In the 1‐D planar geometry, the south boundary is subjected to constant heat flux, while in the 2‐D geometry the south and/or the north boundary is at constant heat flux condition. The remaining boundaries are at prescribed temperatures. The energy equation is solved using the LBM and the radiative information for the same is computed using the FVM. In the direct method, by prescribing temperatures at the boundaries, the temperature profile and heat flux are calculated. The computed heat flux values are imposed at the boundaries to establish the correctness of the numerical code in the inverse method. Effects of various parameters such as the extinction coefficient, the scattering albedo, the conduction–radiation parameter, the boundary emissivity and the total heat flux and boundary temperatures are studied on the distributions of temperature, radiative and conductive heat fluxes. The results of the LBM in conjunction with the FVM have been found to compare very well with those available in the literature. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On non‐linear transformations for accurate numerical evaluation of weakly singular boundary integrals

This paper presents a study of the performance of the non‐linear co‐ordinate transformations in the numerical integration of weakly singular boundary integrals. A comparison of the smoothing property, numerical convergence and accuracy of the available non‐linear polynomial transformations is presented for two‐dimensional problems. Effectiveness of generalized transformations valid for any type and location of singularity has been investigated. It is found that weakly singular integrals are more efficiently handled with transformations valid for end‐point singularities by partitioning the element at the singular point. Further, transformations which are excellent for CPV integrals are not as accurate for weakly singular integrals. Connection between the maximum permissible order of polynomial transformations and precision of computations has also been investigated; cubic transformation is seen to be the optimum choice for single precision, and quartic or quintic one, for double precision computations. A new approach which combines the method of singularity subtraction with non‐linear transformation has been proposed. This composite approach is found to be more accurate, efficient and robust than the singularity subtraction method and the non‐linear transformation methods. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scaled boundary finite‐element analysis of a non‐homogeneous elastic half‐space

As a result of stresses experienced during and after the deposition phase, a soil strata of uniform material generally exhibits an increase in elastic stiffness with depth. The immediate settlement of foundations on deep soil deposits and the resultant stress state within the soil mass may be most accurately calculated if this increase in stiffness with depth is taken into account. This paper presents an axisymmetric formulation of the scaled boundary finite‐element method and incorporates non‐homogeneous elasticity into the method. The variation of Young's modulus (E) with depth (z) is assumed to take the form E=m_Ez^α, where m_E is a constant and αis the non‐homogeneity parameter. Results are presented and compared to analytical solutions for the settlement profiles of rigid and flexible circular footings on an elastic half‐space, under pure vertical load with αvarying between zero and one, and an example demonstrating the versatility and practicality of the method is also presented. Known analytical solutions are accurately represented and new insight regarding displacement fields in a non‐homogeneous elastic half‐space is gained. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive superposition of finite element meshes in non‐linear transient solid mechanics problems

An s‐adaptive finite element procedure is developed for the transient analysis of 2‐D solid mechanics problems with material non‐linearity due to progressive damage. The resulting adaptive method simultaneously estimates and controls both the spatial error and temporal error within user‐specified tolerances. The spatial error is quantified by the Zienkiewicz–Zhu error estimator and computed via superconvergent patch recovery, while the estimation of temporal error is based on the assumption of a linearly varying third‐order time derivatives of the displacement field in conjunction with direct numerical time integration. The distinguishing characteristic of the s‐adaptive procedure is the use of finite element mesh superposition (s‐refinement) to provide spatial adaptivity. Mesh superposition proves to be particularly advantageous in computationally demanding non‐linear transient problems since it is faster, simpler and more efficient than traditional h‐refinement schemes. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the performance characteristics of the s‐adaptive method for quasi‐static and transient problems with material non‐linearity. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transient heat conduction by the boundary element method: D‐BEM approaches

This work is concerned with the development of different domain‐BEM (D‐BEM) approaches to the solution of two‐dimensional diffusion problems. In the first approach, the process of time marching is accomplished with a combination of the finite difference and the Houbolt methods. The second approach starts by weighting, with respect to time, the basic D‐BEM equation, under the assumption of linear and constant time variation for the temperature and for the heat flux, respectively. A constant time weighting function is adopted. The time integration reduces the order of the time derivative that appears in the domain integral; as a consequence, the initial conditions are directly taken into account. Four examples are presented to verify the applicability of the proposed approaches, and the D‐BEM results are compared with the corresponding analytical solutions.Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensitivity and optimization for shape and non‐linear boundary conditions in thermal boundary elements

This paper is concerned with the minimization of functionals of the form ∫_Γ(b) f( h ,T( b, h )) dΓ( b ) where variation of the vector b modifies the shape of the domain Ω on which the potential problem, ?²T=0, is defined. The vector h is dependent on non‐linear boundary conditions that are defined on the boundary Γ. The method proposed is founded on the material derivative adjoint variable method traditionally used for shape optimization. Attention is restricted to problems where the shape of Γ is described by a boundary element mesh, where nodal co‐ordinates are used in the definition of b . Propositions are presented to show how design sensitivities for the modified functional ∫_Γ(b) f( h ,T ( b, h )) dΓ( b ) +∫_Ω(b) λ( b, h ) ?²T( b, h ) dΩ( b ) can be derived more readily with knowledge of the form of the adjoint function λ determined via non‐shape variations. The methods developed in the paper are applied to a problem in pressure die casting, where the objective is the determination of cooling channel shapes for optimum cooling. The results of the method are shown to be highly convergent. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi‐time‐step explicit–implicit method for non‐linear structural dynamics

We present a method with domain decomposition to solve time‐dependent non‐linear problems. This method enables arbitrary numeric schemes of the Newmark family to be coupled with different time steps in each subdomain: this coupling is achieved by prescribing continuity of velocities at the interface. We are more specifically interested in the coupling of implicit/explicit numeric schemes taking into account material and geometric non‐linearities. The interfaces are modelled using a dual Schur formulation where the Lagrange multipliers represent the interfacial forces. Unlike the continuous formulation, the discretized formulation of the dynamic problem is unable to verify simultaneously the continuity of displacements, velocities and accelerations at the interfaces. We show that, within the framework of the Newmark family of numeric schemes, continuity of velocities at the interfaces enables the definition of an algorithm which is stable for all cases envisaged. To prove this stability, we use an energy method, i.e. a global method over the whole time interval, in order to verify the algorithms properties. Then, we propose to extend this to non‐linear situations in the following cases: implicit linear/explicit non‐linear, explicit non‐linear/explicit non‐linear and implicit non‐linear/explicit non‐linear. Finally, we present some examples showing the feasibility of the method. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A discontinuous Galerkin formulation of non‐linear Kirchhoff–Love shells

Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods provide a means of weakly enforcing the continuity of the unknown‐field derivatives and have particular appeal in problems involving high‐order derivatives. This feature has previously been successfully exploited (Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 2008; 197 :2901–2929) to develop a formulation of linear Kirchhoff–Love shells considering only the membrane and bending responses. In this proposed one‐field method—the displacements are the only unknowns, while the displacement field is continuous, the continuity in the displacement derivative between two elements is weakly enforced by recourse to a DG formulation. It is the purpose of the present paper to extend this formulation to finite deformations and non‐linear elastic behaviors. While the initial linear formulation was relying on the direct linear computation of the effective membrane stress and effective bending couple‐stress from the displacement field at the mid‐surface of the shell, the non‐linear formulation considered implies the evaluation of the general stress tensor across the shell thickness, leading to a reformulation of the internal forces of the shell. Nevertheless, since the interface terms resulting from the discontinuous Galerkin method involve only the resultant couple‐stress at the edges of the shells, the extension to non‐linear deformations is straightforward. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of cubic Hermitian algorithms to boundary element analysis of heat conduction

This paper presents the application of cubic Hermitian interpolation based finite element schemes for the time integration of the differential-algebraic system arising in the dual reciprocity boundary element formulation of transient diffusion problems. Weighted residual procedure is used to obtain the desired recurrence relations. Numerical results presented for three representative problems involving different types of boundary conditions amply demonstrate the high accuracy of the cubic Hermitian schemes.     

Axial symmetric elasticity analysis in non‐homogeneous bodies under gravitational load by triple‐reciprocity boundary element method

In general, internal cells are required to solve elasticity problems by involving a gravitational load in non‐homogeneous bodies with variable mass density when using a conventional boundary element method (BEM). Then, the effect of mesh reduction is not achieved and one of the main merits of the BEM, which is the simplicity of data preparation, is lost. In this study, it is shown that the domain cells can be avoided by using the triple‐reciprocity BEM formulation, where the density of domain integral is expressed in terms of other fields that are represented by boundary densities and/or source densities at isolated interior points. Utilizing the rotational symmetry, the triple‐reciprocity BEM formulation is developed for axially symmetric elasticity problems in non‐homogeneous bodies under gravitational force. A new computer program was developed and applied to solve several test problems. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The scaled boundary finite element method—alias consistent infinitesimal finite element cell method—for diffusion

The scaled boundary finite element method, alias the consistent infinitesimal finite element cell method, is developed starting from the diffusion equation. Only the boundary of the medium is discretized with surface finite elements yielding a reduction of the spatial dimension by one. No fundamental solution is necessary, and thus no singular integrals need to be evaluated. Essential and natural boundary conditions on surfaces and conditions on interfaces between different materials are enforced exactly without any discretization. The solution of the function in the radial direction is analytical. This method is thus exact in the radial direction and converges to the exact solution in the finite element sense in the circumferential directions. The semi‐analytical solution inside the domain leads to an efficient procedure to calculate singularities accurately without discretization in the vicinity of the singular point. For a bounded medium symmetric steady‐state stiffness and mass matrices with respect to the degrees of freedom on the boundary result without any additional assumption. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Energy and momentum conserving elastodynamics of a non‐linear brick‐type mixed finite shell element

The paper presents aspects of the finite element formulation of momentum and energy conserving algorithms for the non‐linear dynamic analysis of shell‐like structures. The key contribution is a detailed analysis of the implementation of a Simó–Tarnow‐type conservation scheme in a recently developed new mixed finite shell element. This continuum‐based shell element provides a well‐defined interface to strain‐driven constitutive stress updates algorithms. It is based on the classic brick‐type trilinear displacement element and is equipped with specific gradient‐type enhanced strain modes and shell‐typical assumed strain modifications. The excellent performance of the proposed dynamic shell formulation with respect to conservation properties and numerical stability behaviour is demonstrated by means of three representative numerical examples of elastodynamics which exhibit complex free motions of flexible structures undergoing large strains and large rigid‐body motions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Higher‐order boundary element methods for transient diffusion problems. Part II: Singular flux formulation

A boundary element method (BEM) for transient heat diffusion phenomena presented in Part I is extended to problems involving instantaneous rise of temperature on a portion of the boundary. The new boundary element formulation involves the use of an infinite flux function in order to properly capture the singular response of the flux. It is shown that the conventional finite flux BEM formulation, as well as a commercial FEM code, results in a large first‐time‐step numerical error that cannot be reduced by mesh or time‐step refinement. The use of the singular flux formulation for BEM demonstrates an extremely high level of accuracy for the one‐dimensional case, and a significant improvement in the solutions within a two‐dimensional representation. The additional errors arising due to improper time interpolation of the temperature on the boundaries adjacent to the singular flux boundary are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An eight‐node hybrid‐stress solid‐shell element for geometric non‐linear analysis of elastic shells

This paper presents eight‐node solid‐shell elements for geometric non‐linear analysis of elastic shells. To subdue shear, trapezoidal and thickness locking, the assumed natural strain method and an ad hoc modified generalized laminate stiffness matrix are employed. A selectively reduced integrated element is formulated with its membrane and bending shear strain components taken to be constant and equal to the ones evaluated at the element centroid. With the generalized stresses arising from the modified generalized laminate stiffness matrix assumed to be independent from the ones obtained from the displacement, an extended Hellinger–Reissner functional can be derived. By choosing the assumed generalized stresses similar to the assumed stresses of a previous solid element, a hybrid‐stress solid‐shell element is formulated. Commonly employed geometric non‐linear homogeneous and laminated shell problems are attempted and our results are close to those of other state‐of‐the‐art elements. Moreover, the hybrid‐stress element converges more readily than the selectively reduced integrated element in all benchmark problems. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.