Finite element computation of sloshing modes in containers with elastic baffle plates

A finite element method to approximate the vibration modes of a plate in contact with an incompressible fluid is analysed in this paper. The effect of the fluid is taken into account by means of an added mass formulation, discretized by standard piecewise linear tetrahedral finite elements. Gravity waves on the free surface of the liquid are considered in the model. The plate is modelled by Reissner–Mindlin equations discretized by MITC3 locking‐free elements. Implementation issues are discussed and numerical experiments are presented. In particular, the method is compared with analytical approximations and with an experimental study which has been recently reported. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BOUNDARY ELEMENT–FINITE ELEMENT COUPLED EIGENANALYSIS OF FLUID–STRUCTURE SYSTEMS

The eigenanalysis of acoustical cavities with flexible structure boundaries, such as a fluid-filled container or an automobile cabin enclosure, is considered. An algebraic eigenvalue problem formulation for the fluid–structure problem is presented by combining the acoustic fluid boundary element eigenvalue analysis method and the structural finite elements. For many practical eigenproblems, use of finite elements to discretize the fluid domain leads to large stiffness and mass matrices. Since the acoustic boundary element discretization requires putting nodes only on the wetted surface of the structure, the size of the eigenproblem is reduced considerably, thus reducing the eigenvalue extraction effort. Futhermore, unlike in ordinary cases, the finite element discretization of pressure–displacement based fluid–structure problem gives rise to unsymmetric matrices. Therefore, the fact that the boundary element formulation produces unsymmetric matrices does not introduce additional difficulties here compared to the finite element case in the choice of an eigenvalue extraction procedure. Examples are included to demonstrate the fluid–structure eigenanalysis using boundary elements for the fluid domain and finite elements for the structure.     

Dispersion analysis of stabilized finite element methods for acoustic fluid interaction with Reissner–Mindlin plates

The application of stabilized finite element methods to model the vibration of elastic plates coupled with an acoustic fluid medium is considered. A complex‐wavenumber dispersion analysis of acoustic fluid interaction with Reissner–Mindlin plates is performed to quantify the accuracy of stabilized finite element methods for fluid‐loaded plates. Results demonstrate the improved accuracy of a recently developed hybrid least‐squares (HLS) plate element based on a modified Hellinger–Reissner functional, consistently combined with residual‐based methods for the acoustic fluid, compared to standard Galerkin and Galerkin gradient least‐squares plate elements. The technique of complex wavenumber dispersion analysis is used to examine the accuracy of the discretized system in the representation of free waves for fluid‐loaded plates. The influence of fluid and coupling matrices resulting from consistent implementation of pressure loading in the residual for the plate equation is examined and clarified for the different finite element approximations. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On attenuation of floating structure response to underwater shock

This paper presents an analysis on attenuation of floating structures response to underwater shock. An explicit finite element approach interfaced with the boundary element method is used for the shock-fluid–structure interaction. The bulk cavitation induced by underwater shock near the free surface is considered in this study. Two types of floating structural configurations are modeled: one is the two-layered panel and the other is the sandwich panel, both of which are extracted from the typical floating hulls—the former corresponds the single hull with coating material and the latter corresponds to the double hull with different material fillings. Their effective structural damping and stiffness are formulated and incorporated in the fluid–structure-coupled equations, which relate the structure response to fluid impulsive loading and are solved using the coupled explicit finite-element and boundary element codes. The cavitation phenomenon near free surface is captured via the present computational procedure. The attenuation effects of the floating structure response to underwater explosion are examined. From the results obtained, some insights on the improvement of floating structures to enhance their resistance to underwater shock are deduced.     

An elastostatic FEM/BEM analysis of vertically loaded raft and piled raft foundation

In this paper, a static analysis of vertically loaded raft and piled raft foundations in smooth and continuous contact with the supporting soil is presented. In this approach the finite element method (FEM) and the boundary element method (BEM) are coupled: the bending plate is assumed to have linear elastic properties and is modelled by FEM while the soil is considered as an elastic half-space in the BEM. The pile is represented by a single element and the shear force along the shaft is interpolated by a quadratic function. The plate–soil interface is divided into triangular boundary elements (soil) also called cells and finite elements (plate) and the subgrade reaction is linearly interpolated across each cell. The subgrade tractions are eliminated from the FEM and BEM algebraic systems of equations, resulting in the governing system of equations for plate–pile–soil interaction problems. Numerical results are presented and they are close to those resulting from much more elaborate analyses.     

FE/BE coupling for an acoustic fluid–structure interaction problem. Residual a posteriori error estimates

In this paper, we developed an a posteriori error analysis of a coupling of finite elements and boundary elements for a fluid–structure interaction problem in two and three dimensions. This problem is governed by the acoustic and the elastodynamic equations in time‐harmonic vibration. Our methods combined integral equations for the exterior fluid and FEMs for the elastic structure. It is well‐known that because of the reduction of the boundary value problem to boundary integral equations, the solution is not unique in general. However, because of superposition of various potentials, we consider a boundary integral equation that is uniquely solvable and avoids the irregular frequencies of the negative Laplacian operator of the interior domain. In this paper, two stable procedures were considered; one is based on the nonsymmetric formulation and the other is based on a symmetric formulation. For both formulations, we derived reliable residual a posteriori error estimates. From the estimators we computed local error indicators that allowed us to develop an adaptive mesh refinement strategy. For the two‐dimensional case we performed an adaptive algorithm on triangles, and for the three‐dimensional case we used hanging nodes on hexahedrons. Numerical experiments underline our theoretical results. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Free surface and surface tension effects on submerged bodies

Summary The Oseen problem for the steady motion of an object beneath a free surface with surface tension under the action of gravity is formulated. The Green's tensor for the problem is used to convert the boundary value problem to a coupled pair of integral equations for the stresses which the fluid exerts on the object. For the special case of a flat plate, these integral equations are analyzed asymptotically for small velocities and deep immersion. This yields a Fredholm equation of the second kind with Cauchy kernel, which hasa well-known solution. The results indicate the effect of surface tension on the stress singularities at the edges of the plate, and modification of the lift and drag due to the free surface.     

A 3-D,symmetric, finite element formulation of the Biot equations with application to acoustic wave propagation through an elastic porous medium

A weak solution of the coupled, acoustic-elastic, wave propagation problem for a flexible porous material is proposed for a 3-D continuum. Symmetry in the matrix equations; with respect to both volume, i.e. ‘porous frame’–‘pore fluid’, and surface, i.e. ‘porous frame/pore fluid’–‘non-porous media’, fluid–structure interaction; is ensured with only five unknowns per node; fluid pore pressure, fluid-displacement potential and three Cartesian components of the porous frame displacement field. Taking Biot's general theory as starting point, the discretized form of the equations is derived from a weighted residual statement, using a standard Galerkin approximation and iso-parametric interpolation of the dependent variables. The coupling integrals appearing along the boundary of the porous medium are derived for a number of different surface conditions. The primary application of the proposed symmetric 3-D finite element formulation is modelling of noise transmission in typical transportation vehicles, such as aircraft, cars, etc., where porous materials are used for both temperature and noise insulation purposes. As an example of an application of the implemented finite elements, the noise transmission through a double panel with porous filling and different boundary conditions at the two panel boundaries are analysed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A rheological interface model and its space–time finite element formulation for fluid–structure interaction

This contribution discusses extended physical interface models for fluid–structure interaction problems and investigates their phenomenological effects on the behavior of coupled systems by numerical simulation. Besides the various types of friction at the fluid–structure interface the most interesting phenomena are related to effects due to additional interface stiffness and damping. The paper introduces extended models at the fluid–structure interface on the basis of rheological devices (Hooke, Newton, Kelvin, Maxwell, Zener). The interface is decomposed into a Lagrangian layer for the solid‐like part and an Eulerian layer for the fluid‐like part. The mechanical model for fluid–structure interaction is based on the equations of rigid body dynamics for the structural part and the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for viscous flow. The resulting weighted residual form uses the interface velocity and interface tractions in both layers in addition to the field variables for fluid and structure. The weak formulation of the whole coupled system is discretized using space–time finite elements with a discontinuous Galerkin method for time‐integration leading to a monolithic algebraic system. The deforming fluid domain is taken into account by deformable space–time finite elements and a pseudo‐structure approach for mesh motion. The sensitivity of coupled systems to modification of the interface model and its parameters is investigated by numerical simulation of flow induced vibrations of a spring supported fluid‐immersed cylinder. It is shown that the presented rheological interface model allows to influence flow‐induced vibrations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Forced surface waves in the presence of porous walls

Summary A linearised surface wave motion is considered for a fluid of infinite extent and of infinite or finite constant depth in the presence of an impermeable plate and a porous wall immersed in the fluid parallel to each other. The motion is generated once by the plate and next by the wall. Analytical solutions are obtained for the velocity potentials of the motions, the hydrodynamic pressure distribution on the porous wall and the profile of the surface and the effects of porosity on these quantities are discussed. A scattering problem is investigated in conclusion.With 5 Figures     

On finite element modelling of surface tension: Variational formulation and applications – Part II: Dynamic problems

In Part I, a finite element model of surface tension has been discussed and used to solve some quasi-static problems. The quasi-static analysis is often required to find not only the initial shape of the liquid but also the static equilibrium state of a liquid body before a dynamic analysis can be carried out. In general, natural and industrial processes in which surface tension force is dominant are of dynamic nature. In this second part of this work, the dynamic effects will be included in the finite element model described in Part I.A fully Lagrangian finite element method is used to solve the free surface flow problem and Newtonian constitutive equations describing the fluid behaviour are approximated over a finite time interval. As a result the momentum equations are function of nodal position instead of velocities. The resulting ordinary differential equation is integrated using Newmark algorithm. To avoid overly distorted elements an adaptive remeshing strategy is adopted. The adaptive strategy employs a remeshing indicator based on viscous dissipation functional and incorporates an appropriate transfer operator.The validation of the model is performed by comparing the finite element solutions to available analytical solutions of a droplet oscillations and experimental results pertaining to stretching of a liquid bridge.     

Solution of multiple crack problem in a finite plate using an alternating method based on two kinds of integral equation

This paper investigates a solution of multiple crack problem in a finite plate using an alternating method. The finite plate with cracks is an overlapping region of two regions: namely the infinite region exterior to the cracks and the finite region interior to finite plate without cracks. It is assumed that the cracks are applied by some loading and edges of the finite plate are of traction free. Governing equations for the problem and an alternating method are suggested. In the iteration, we need to solve two boundary value problems. One is the multiple crack problem in an infinite plate, and the other is the boundary value problem for the finite plate without crack. Several numerical examples are provided to prove the effectiveness of the suggested method.     

带有加强筋的Mindlin板动态刚度阵法

以加筋中厚矩形板为研究对象，推导了加筋板的动态刚度阵，为动态刚度阵法提供一种新单元。板的运动微分方程由Mindlin厚板理论给出，同时还考虑了板平面内的振动。对于板上加强筋的处理，则通过Hamilton原理对板的运动方程作相应的修正，最终得到加筋板的运动微分方程。而方程的解析解直接用于单元刚度阵的推导，所得加筋板单元的动态刚度阵结合传统有限元方法的单元组装和求解方法即可用于计算整个结构的动力响应。此外，还给出了加筋板单元的均方响应计算公式，可用来计算结构的平均振动能量。最后通过数值算例验证本文方法，计算结果与传统有限元方法进行分析比较。     

Stress–singularity analysis in space junctions of thin plates

The stress singularity in space junctions of thin linearly elastic isotropic plate elements with zero bending rigidities is investigated. The problem for an intersection of infinite wedge-shaped elements is considered first and the solution for each element, being in the plane stress state, is represented in terms of holomorphic functions (Kolosov–Muskhelishvili complex potentials) in some weighted Hardy-type classes. After application of the Mellin transform with respect to radius, the problem is reduced to a system of linear algebraic equations. By use of the residue calculus during the inverse Mellin transform, the stress asymptotics at the wedge apex is obtained. Then the asymptotic representation is extended to intersections of finite plate elements. Some numerical results are presented for a dependence of stress singularity powers on the junction geometry and on membrane rigidities of plate elements.     

A computational approach for predicting the hydroelasticity of flexible structures based on the pressure Poisson equation

This work is concerned with the modeling of the interaction of fluid flow with flexible solid structures. The flow under consideration is governed by the Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible viscous fluids and modeled with low‐order velocity–pressure finite elements. The motion of the fluid domain is accounted for by the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation. The structure is represented by means of an appropriate standard finite element formulation. The spring smooth analogy is used to mesh control. The time integrating algorithm is based on the predictor–multi‐corrector algorithm. An important aspect of the present work is the introduction of a new monolithic approach based on the fluid pressure Poisson equation (PPE) to solve the hydroelasticity problem of an incompressible viscous fluid with an elastic body that is vibrating due to flow excitation. The PPE is derived to be consistent with the coupled system equation for the fluid–structure interaction (FSI). Based on this approach, an efficient monolithic method is adopted to simulate hydroelasticity between the flexible structure and the flow. The fluid pressure is implicitly derived to satisfy the incompressibility constraint, and the other unknown variables are explicitly derived. The coefficient matrix of the PPE for the FSI becomes symmetric and positive definite. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach, two working examples, a beam immersed in incompressible fluid and a guide vane of a Francis turbine passage, were used. The results show the validity of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On a method for vibration analysis of viscous compressible fluid–structure systems

A fluid–structure interaction formulation for viscous compressible fluid is under consideration. The formulation involves finite element approximation of linearized Navier–Stokes equations and response determination made by means of modal superposition analysis. Standard and simplified schemes of the viscous compressible fluid–structure interaction problem solution are developed. The schemes are based on the frequency condensation method of a complex eigenvalue problem solving. Free and forced oscillations of several fluid–structure systems are studied by the standard and simplified schemes. The analysis of the results obtained shows that the simplified scheme provides a saving of 90% of the computational time required to define oscillation of the structure with viscous compressible fluid in the lowest frequency range. A certain influence of the fluid viscosity on the transient response of the fluid–structure system is also demonstrated. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of free surface flows using isoparametric finite elements

A theory for free surface flow using variable geometry finite elements is numerically modelled using isoparametric finite elements, for the first time. The resulting nonlinear equations are solved using the Newton-Raphson method. Because a functional is used as the basis of the formulation, the resulting equations are symmetrical. The realistic problem of flow over a Crump weir is solved for a large range of discharges.     

Viscous oscillations in a circular cylinder with an elastic cover on the free surface

The effects of an elastic membrane on the viscous oscillations of liquid filling a circular cylindrical container are studied by using the natural viscous complex eigenfunctions of the problem. The free surface of the liquid is assumed to be fully covered by the membrane. By projecting the governing equations onto an appropriate basis, a nonlinear eigenvalue problem for the complex frequencies is obtained. This is then solved to obtain the modal frequencies as a function of the Reynolds number Re, the tension parameter τ, the mass parameter ζ and the liquid depth h. The zero velocity conditions on both the side and bottom walls are satisfied unlike in earlier studies where either only the sidewall or only the bottom wall conditions were met. Results are presented for the four lowest non-axisymmetric modes as a function of Re, h, τ and ζ. The elastic cover increases the slosh frequencies but only in comparison with an uncovered free surface with a contact line that is free to move; the frequencies are lower when compared with those of a free surface with pinned contact line. There are ranges of Re, h, τ and ζ for which the oscillations are overdamped and the sloshing is aperiodic. Though the frequencies and damping rates decrease for an increasing mass of the elastic cover, there exist ranges of Re, h and τ for which the heavier cover produces higher slosh frequencies.     

利用附加质量载荷降低薄板声辐射

通过附加质量控制薄板结构声辐射问题。先建立有限元的结构声辐射优化模型,用有限元法和瑞利积分计算薄板结构的声辐射功率。再以不考虑刚度的平板质量单元描述分布质量载荷,以质量单元的厚度为设计变量,研究简谐激励下的薄板结构声辐射优化问题。数值算例表明,优化后的附加质量载荷有效降低了薄板声辐射功率。该方法工艺上教易具有实用工程价值。