Thermal Analysis of CNT-Based Nano-Composites by Element Free Galerkin Method

This paper deals with the thermal analysis of carbon nanotube (CNT) based composites by meshless element free Galerkin method. Cylindrical representative volume element (cylindrical RVE) has been chosen to evaluate the thermal properties of nano-composites using multi-domain and simplified approaches. The values of temperature have been calculated at different points and plotted against RVE length and RVE radius. A sensitivity analysis of RVE as well as CNT dimensions has been carried out in detail. The present computations show that the equivalent thermal conductivity is a function of CNT length, CNT radius, RVE length and RVE radius. Based on present numerical simulations, an approximate formula is proposed to calculate the equivalent thermal conductivity of nano-composites. The results obtained by simplified approach have been found in good agreement with those obtained by multi-domain approach.     

无单元Galerkin方法中周期边界条件的处理

本文研究了无单元Galerkin方法中周期边界条件的处理技术,将Lagrange乘子法用于周期边界条件的处理.数值计算结果表明,该方法具有较高的计算精度.另外,它与无单元Galerkin方法中本质边界条件处理的Lagrange乘子法具有统一性,对于周期、本质混合型边界条件的处理尤为方便.     

A new method for meshless integration in 2D and 3D Galerkin meshfree methods

A method for the evaluation of regular domain integrals without domain discretization is presented. In this method, a domain integral is transformed into a boundary integral and a 1D integral. The method is then utilized for the evaluation of domain integrals in meshless methods based on the weak form, such as the element-free Galerkin method and the meshless radial point interpolation method. The proposed technique results in truly meshless methods with better accuracy and efficiency in comparison with their original forms. Some examples, including linear and large-deformation problems, are also provided to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method.     

A priori and a posteriori analysis of the meshless Galerkin boundary node method for three-dimensional elasticity

The meshless Galerkin boundary node method is presented in this paper for boundary-only analysis of three-dimensional elasticity problems. In this method, boundary conditions can be implemented directly and easily despite the employed moving least-squares shape functions lack the delta function property, and the resulting system matrices are symmetric and positive definite. A priori error estimates and the consequent rate of convergence are presented. A posteriori error estimates are also provided. Reliable and efficient error estimators and an efficient and convergent adaptive meshless algorithm are then derived. Numerical examples showing the efficiency of the method, confirming the theoretical properties of the error estimates, and illustrating the capability of the adaptive algorithm, are reported.     

Buckling analysis of corrugated plates using a mesh-free Galerkin method based on the first-order shear deformation theory

This paper deals with elastic buckling analysis of stiffened and un-stiffened corrugated plates via a mesh-free Galerkin method based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The corrugated plates are approximated by orthotropic plates of uniform thickness that have different elastic properties along the two perpendicular directions of the plates. The key to the approximation is that the equivalaent elastic properties of the orthotropic plates are derived by applying constant curvature conditions to the corrugated sheet. The stiffened corrugated plates are analyzed as stiffened orthotropic plates. The stiffeners are modelled as beams. The stiffness matrix of the stiffened corrugated plate is obtained by superimposing the strain energy of the equivalent orthotropic plate and the beams after implementing the displacement compatibility conditions between the plate and the beams. The mesh free characteristic of the proposed method guarantee that the stiffeners can be placed anywhere on the plate, and that remeshing is avoided when the stiffener positions change. A few selected examples are studied to demonstrate the accuracy and convergence of the proposed method. The results obtained for these examples, when possible, are compared with the ANSYS solutions or other available solutions in literature. Good agreement is evident for all cases. Some new results for both trapezoidally and sinusoidally corrugated plates are then reported.     

Elasto-plastic element-free Galerkin method

In this paper the element free Galerkin method (EFGM) has been extended to be used in the elastoplastic stress analysis. The developed method has been examined in planar stress analysis around the tip of a crack and in its opening mode of loading. To do this, at the first step by using the incremental relations of plastic deformation a system of elastoplastic EFGM equations has been derived. Since the obtained relations are nonlinear, a nonlinear solution technique has been chosen. To examine the validity of this technique, stress fields in two different plates with and without a crack have been calculated and the results have been compared with other similar analytical works in the literature. In doing so the power law work hardening behavior has been employed and the value of J-integral has been used as a base for comparison of the results.First and second authors wish to express their gratitude to the Office of Research Affairs of Sharif University of Technology for financial support to conduct this research. The second author wishes to appreciate Professor Tom Hyde head of the School of 4 M in the University of Nottingham for his guidance and providing some research facilities.     

Fracture mechanics analysis using the wavelet Galerkin method and extended finite element method

This paper presents fracture mechanics analysis using the wavelet Galerkin method and extended finite element method. The wavelet Galerkin method is a new methodology to solve partial differential equations where scaling/wavelet functions are used as basis functions. In solid/structural analyses, the analysis domain is divided into equally spaced structured cells and scaling functions are periodically placed throughout the domain. To improve accuracy, wavelet functions are superposed on the scaling functions within a region having a high stress concentration, such as near a hole or notch. Thus, the method can be considered a refinement technique in fixed‐grid approaches. However, because the basis functions are assumed to be continuous in applications of the wavelet Galerkin method, there are difficulties in treating displacement discontinuities across the crack surface. In the present research, we introduce enrichment functions in the wavelet Galerkin formulation to take into account the discontinuous displacements and high stress concentration around the crack tip by applying the concept of the extended finite element method. This paper presents the mathematical formulation and numerical implementation of the proposed technique. As numerical examples, stress intensity factor evaluations and crack propagation analyses for two‐dimensional cracks are presented. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

RMVT-based meshless collocation and element-free Galerkin methods for the quasi-3D analysis of multilayered composite and FGM plates

A meshless collocation (MC) and an element-free Galerkin (EFG) method, using the differential reproducing kernel (DRK) interpolation, are developed for the quasi-three-dimensional (3D) analysis of simply supported, multilayered composite and functionally graded material (FGM) plates. The strong and weak formulations of this 3D static problem are derived on the basis of the Reissner mixed variational theorem (RMVT) where the strong formulation consists of the Euler–Lagrange equations of the problem and its associated boundary conditions, and the weak formulation represents a weighted-residual integral in which the differentiation is equally distributed among the primary field variables and their variations. The early proposed DRK interpolation is used to construct the primary field variables where the Kronecker delta properties are satisfied, and the essential boundary conditions can be readily applied, exactly like the implementation in the finite element method. The system equations of both the RMVT-based MC and EFG methods are obtained using these strong and weak formulations, respectively, in combination with the DRK interpolation. In the illustrative examples, it is shown that the solutions obtained from these methods are in excellent agreement with the available 3D solutions, and their convergence rates are rapid.     

Nonlocal damage modelling using the element-free Galerkin method in the frame of finite strains

Prediction of size effects has been a challenging problem since some experiments found the size effect in material damage. Both material model and numerical algorithm have to be improved to consider the complex damage process. In the present paper we implement element-free Galerkin (EFG) method for a strain-gradient based nonlocal damage model and use it to analyze ductile material damage process. The EFG algorithm overcomes some drawbacks of the FEM in convergence of numerical iteration due to large deformations as well as evaluation of the higher-order gradients of the plastic strain. The numerical benchmarks show that the EFG method for the nonlocal damage model provides more stable numerical results. The size effect in notched specimens can be predicted in the computations. Both ductile fracture in tensile specimens as well as their size effects are investigated and the computational results agree very well with experiments.     

Orthotropic enriched element free Galerkin method for fracture analysis of composites

A new approach for modeling discrete cracks in two-dimensional orthotropic media by the element free Galerkin method is described. For increasing the solution accuracy, recently developed orthotropic enrichment functions used in the extended finite element method are adopted along with a sub-triangle technique for enhancing the Gauss quadrature accuracy near the crack. An appropriate scheme for selecting the support domains near a crack is employed to reduce the computational cost. In this study, mixed-mode stress intensity factors are obtained by means of the interaction integral to determine the fracture properties. Several problems are solved to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and the results are compared with available results of other numerical or (semi-) analytical methods.     

RMVT-based meshless collocation and element-free Galerkin methods for the quasi-3D free vibration analysis of multilayered composite and FGM plates

A meshless collocation (MC) and an element-free Galerkin (EFG) method, using the differential reproducing kernel (DRK) interpolation, are developed for the quasi-three-dimensional (3D) free vibration analysis of simply supported, multilayered composite and functionally graded material (FGM) plates. Based on the Reissner Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT), the strong and weak formulations of this problem are derived, in which the material properties of each individual FGM layer, constituting the plate, are assumed to obey the power-law distributions of the volume fractions of the constituents. The system motion equations of both the RMVT-based MC and EFG methods are obtained using these strong and weak formulations, respectively, in combination with the DRK interpolation, in which the shape functions of the unknown functions satisfy the Kronecker delta properties, and the essential boundary conditions can be readily applied, exactly like the implementation in the finite element method. In the illustrative examples, the natural frequencies and their corresponding modal field variables varying along the thickness coordinate of the plate are studied. It is shown that the solutions obtained using these methods are in excellent agreement with the available 3D solutions, and their convergence rates are rapid.     

Meshless analysis of two-dimensional Stokes flows with the Galerkin boundary node method

In this paper, the Galerkin boundary node method (GBNM) is developed for the solution of stationary Stokes problems in two dimensions. The GBNM is a boundary only meshless method that combines a variational form of boundary integral formulations for governing equations with the moving least-squares (MLS) approximations for construction of the trial and test functions. Boundary conditions in this approach are included into the variational form, thus they can be applied directly and easily despite the MLS shape functions lack the property of a delta function. Besides, the GBNM keeps the symmetry and positive definiteness of the variational problems. Convergence analysis results of both the velocity and the pressure are given. Some selected numerical tests are also presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the method.     

Application of meshless EFG method in fluid flow problems

This paper deals with the solution of two-dimensional fluid flow problems using the meshless element-free Galerkin method. The unknown function of velocity u(x) is approximated by moving least square approximants u^h(x). These approximants are constructed by using a weight function, a monomial basis function and a set of non-constant coefficients. The variational method is used for the development of discrete equations. The Lagrange multiplier technique has been used to enforce the essential boundary conditions. A new exponential weight function has been proposed. The results are obtained for a two-dimensional model problem using different EFG weight functions and compared with the results of finite element and exact methods. The results obtained using proposed weight functions (exponential) are more promising as compared to those obtained using existing weight functions (quartic spline and Gaussian)     

Free vibration analysis of functionally graded conical shell panels by a meshless method

A free vibration analysis of metal and ceramic functionally graded conical shell panels is presented using the element-free kp-Ritz method. The first-order shear deformation shell theory is used to account for the transverse shear strains and rotary inertia, and mesh-free kernel particle functions are employed to approximate the two-dimensional displacement fields. The material properties of the conical shell panels are assumed to vary continuously through their thickness in accordance with a power-law distribution of the volume fractions of their constituents. Convergence studies are performed in terms of the number of nodes, and comparisons of the current solutions and those reported in literature are provided to verify the accuracy of the proposed method. Two types of functionally graded conical shell panels, including Al/ZrO₂ and Ti–6Al–4V/aluminum oxide, are chosen in the study, and the effects of the volume fraction, boundary condition, semi-vertex angle, and length-to-thickness ratio on their frequency characteristics are discussed in detail.     

An unfitted finite element method using discontinuous Galerkin

In this paper we present a new approach to simulations on complex‐shaped domains. The method is based on a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method, using trial and test functions defined on a structured grid. Essential boundary conditions are imposed weakly via the DG formulation. This method offers a discretization where the number of unknowns is independent of the complexity of the domain. We will show numerical computations for an elliptic scalar model problem in ?² and ?³. Convergence rates for different polynomial degrees are studied. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Free vibration analysis of moderately thick functionally graded plates by local Kriging meshless method

This paper mainly Presents free vibration analyses of metal and ceramic functionally graded plates with the local Kriging meshless method. The Kriging technique is employed to construct shape functions which possess Kronecker delta function property and thus make it easy to implement essential boundary conditions. The eigenvalue equations of free vibration problems are based on the first-order shear deformation theory and the local Petrov–Galerkin formulation. The cubic spline function is used as the weight function which vanishes on internal boundaries of local quadrature domains and hence simplifies the implementation. Convergence studies are conducted to examine the stability of the present method. Three types of functionally graded plates – square, skew and quadrilateral plates – are considered as numerical examples to demonstrate the versatility of the present method for free vibration analyses.     

Adaptive crack propagation analysis with the element‐free Galerkin method

In this paper, an adaptive analysis of crack propagation based on the error estimation by the element‐free Galerkin (EFG) method is presented. The adaptivity analysis in quasi‐static crack propagation is achieved by adding and/or removing the nodes along the background integration cells, those are refined or recovered according to the estimated errors. These errors are obtained basically by calculating the difference between the values of the projected stresses and original EFG stresses. To evaluate the performance of the proposed adaptive procedure, the crack propagation behaviour is investigated for several examples. The results of these examples show the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed scheme in crack propagation analysis. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.