A resultant 8-node solid-shell element for geometrically nonlinear analysis

A new resultant force formulation of 8-node solid element is presented for the linear and nonlinear analysis of thin-walled structures. The global, local and natural coordinate systems were used to accurately model the shell geometry. The assumed natural strain methods with plane stress concept were implemented to remove the various locking problems appearing in thin plates and shells. The correct warping behavior in the very thin twisted beam test was obtained by using an improved Jacobian transformation matrix. The 2 × 2 Gauss integration scheme was used for the calculation of the element stiffness matrix. From the computational viewpoint, the present solid element is very efficient for a large scale of nonlinear modeling. A lot of numerical tests were carried out for the validation of the present 8-node solid-shell element and the results are in good agreement with references.An erratum to this article can be found at     

带有沙漏控制的相对自由度壳元

针对一点积分的八节点相对自由度壳单元存在的沙漏现象，提出采用拟应变法解决该问题的方法，并对锁死问题进行研究。给出了带有沙漏控制的八节点相对自由度壳元内的坐标、位移插值公式，推导了拟应变的表达式，通过Hu-Washizu变分原理，建立了有限元求解方程。利用Wilson非协调位移模式，单元的计算精度得到了明显改善。算例表明：基于八节点相对自由度壳单元，本文给出的沙漏控制算法能够有效的解决线性静力问题，并且具有较高的计算精度。     

Large strain elastic-plastic theory and nonlinear finite element analysis based on metric transformation tensors

The present paper is concerned with an efficient framework for a nonlinear finite element procedure for the rate-independent finite strain analysis of solids undergoing large elastic-plastic deformations. The formulation relies on the introduction of a mixed-variant metric transformation tensor which will be multiplicatively decomposed into a plastic and an elastic part. This leads to the definition of an appropriate logarithmic strain measure whose rate is shown to be additively decomposed into elastic and plastic strain rate tensors. The mixed-variant logarithmic elastic strain tensor provides a basis for the definition of a local isotropic hyperelastic stress response in the elastic-plastic solid. Additionally, the plastic material behavior is assumed to be governed by a generalized J ₂ yield criterion and rate-independent isochoric plastic strain rates are computed using an associated flow rule. On the numerical side, the computation of the logarithmic strain tensors is based on 1st and higher order Padé approximations. Estimates of the stress and strain histories are obtained via a highly stable and accurate explicit scalar integration procedure which employs a plastic predictor followed by an elastic corrector step. The development of a consistent elastic-plastic tangent operator as well as its implementation into a nonlinear finite element program will also be discussed. Finally, the numerical solution of finite strain elastic-plastic problems is presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm. Received: 17 May 1998     

Three-dimensional 8-node and 20-node refined hybrid isoparametric elements

In this paper a new hybrid variational principle with independent variables of strain, stress and displacement and with a weaker constraint condition of interelement continuity is proposed. Based on this functional, a general formulation of a refined hybrid isoparametric element method has been established by the orthogonal approach. The present formulation is a rational approach to be adopted for deriving high-performance three-dimensional hybrid isoparametric elements even up to the higher-order 20-node element. Several numerical examples are presented to show that the present elements RGH₈(8-node) and RGH₂₀(20-node) have high accuracy, excellent computational efficiency and less sensitivity to mesh distortion.     

Plane isoparametric hybrid-stress elements: Invariance and optimal sampling

Formulation and applications of the hybrid-stress finite element model to plane elasticity problems are examined. Conditions for invariance of the element stiffness are established for two-dimensional problems, the results of which are easily extended to three-dimensional cases. Next, the hybrid-stress functional for a 3-D continuum is manipulated into a more convenient form in which the location of optimal stress/strain sampling points can be identified. To illustrate these concepts, 4- and 8-node plane isoparametric hybrid-stress elements which are invariant and of correct rank are developed and compared with existing hybrid-stress elements. For a 4-node element, lack of invariance is shown to lead to spurious zero energy modes under appropriate element rotation. Alternative 8-node elements are considered, and the best invariant element is shown to be one in which the stress compatibility equations are invoked. Results are also presented which demonstrate the validity of the optimal sampling points, the effects of reduced orders of numerical integration, and the behaviour of the elements for nearly incompressible materials.     

Axisymmetric quadrilateral elements for large deformation hyperelastic analysis

In this paper, axisymmetric 8-node and 9-node quadrilateral elements for large deformation hyperelastic analysis are devised. To alleviate the volumetric locking which may be encountered in nearly incompressible materials, a volumetric enhanced assumed strain (EAS) mode is incorporated in the eight-node and nine-node uniformly reduced-integrated (URI) elements. To control the compatible spurious zero energy mode in the 9-node element, a stabilization matrix is attained by using a hybrid-strain formulation and, after some simplification, the matrix can be programmed in the element subroutine without resorting to numerical integration. Numerical examples show the relative efficacy of the proposed elements and other popular eight-node elements. In view of the constraint index count, the two elements are analogous to the Q8/3P and Q9/3P elements based on the u–p hybrid/mixed formulation. However, the former elements are more straight forward than the latter elements in both formulation and programming implementation.     

Macroscopic theory and nonlinear finite element analysis of micromechanics of single crystals at finite strains

The present paper is concerned with an efficient framework for a nonlinear finite element procedure for the macroscopic rate-independent and rate-dependent analysis of micromechanics of metal single crystals undergoing finite elastic-plastic deformations which is based on the assumption that inelastic deformation is solely due to crystallographic slip. The formulation relies on a multiplicative decomposition of the material deformation gradient into incompressible elastic and plastic as well as a scalar valued volumetric part. Furthermore, the crystal deformation is described as arising from two distinct physical mechanisms, elastic deformation due to distortion of the lattice and crystallographic slip due to shearing along certain preferred lattice planes in certain preferred lattice directions. Macro- and microscopic stress measures are related to Green’s macroscopic strains via a hyperelastic constitutive law based on a free energy potential function, whereas plastic potentials expressed in terms of the generalized Schmid stress lead to a normality rule for the macroscopic plastic strain rate. Estimates of the microscopic stress and strain histories are obtained via a highly stable and very accurate semi-implicit scalar integration procedure which employs a plastic predictor followed by an elastic corrector step, and, furthermore, the development of a consistent elastic-plastic tangent operator as well as its implementation into a nonlinear finite element program will also be discussed. Finally, the numerical simulation of finite strain elastic-plastic tension tests is presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm.     

A 9-node co-rotational quadrilateral shell element

A new 9-node co-rotational curved quadrilateral shell element formulation is presented in this paper. Different from other existing co-rotational element formulations: (1) Additive rotational nodal variables are utilized in the present formulation, they are two well-chosen components of the mid-surface normal vector at each node, and are additive in an incremental solution procedure; (2) the internal force vector and the element tangent stiffness matrix are respectively the first derivative and the second derivative of the element strain energy with respect to the nodal variables, furthermore, all nodal variables are commutative in calculating the second derivatives, resulting in symmetric element tangent stiffness matrices in the local and global coordinate systems; (3) the element tangent stiffness matrix is updated using the total values of the nodal variables in an incremental solution procedure, making it advantageous for solving dynamic problems. Finally, several examples are solved to verify the reliability and computational efficiency of the proposed element formulation.     

A formulation for the 4-node quadrilateral element

A formulation for the plane 4-node quadrilateral finite element is developed based on the principle of virtual displacements for a deformable body. Incompatible modes are added to the standard displacement field. Then expressions for gradient operators are obtained from an expansion of the basis functions into a second-order Taylor series in the physical co-ordinates. The internal degrees of freedom of the incompatible modes are eliminated on the element level. A modified change of variables is used to integrate the element matrices. For a linear elastic material, the element stiffness matrix can be separated into two parts. These are equivalent to a stiffness matrix obtained from underintegration and a stabilization matrix. The formulation includes the cases of plane stress and plane strain as well as the analysis of incompressible materials. Further, the approach is suitable for non-linear analysis. There, an application is given for the calculation of inelastic problems in physically non-linear elasticity. The element is efficient to implement and it is frame invariant. Locking effects and zero-energy modes are avoided as well as singularities of the stiffness matrix due to geometric distortion. A high accuracy is obtained for numerical solutions in displacements and stresses.     

Adaptive 2D finite element simulation of metal forming processes

The development and integration of available current methods and the development of new methods for an adaptive finite element analysis of metal forming processes are presented. The analysis includes large-strain, elastic–plastic, and thermal effects. Many numerical methods such as mesh generation, simulation of the contact between the workpiece and tool and die, and optimization of the finite element mesh are integrated and incorporated. In addition, an algorithm is developed which can detect certain severely distorted elements where the area of integration is approaching zero. The advantage of correcting these regions of locally distorted elements is demonstrated. These numerical methods are implemented in a finite element program developed for simulating metal forming processes, with the emphasis on automating the analysis. Examples include an axisymmetric stress simulation of a coldheading process, a plane strain simulation of an extrusion process and a plane strain simulation of orthogonal metal cutting, all with noticeable thermal effects. The orthogonal cutting forces and feed forces calculated are compared with two sets of experimental data, with good agreement.     

An experimental and numerical study of crack closure

Fatigue crack propagation and crack closure are studied in Al 2024-T3 under a wide range of ΔK. An elastic-plastic finite element procedure to analyze crack closure for growing cracks is presented. Numerical results are obtained for plane stress and plane strain conditions for different stress ratios. Measurements of opening loads compare well with numerical predictions within the Paris regime. Fractographic observations and compliance measurements indicate that oxide-induced and roughness-induced crack closure substantially increase the opening loads in the near-threshold regime.     

A Cell-Based Smoothed Finite Element Method for Modal Analysis of Non-Woven Fabrics

The combination of a 4-node quadrilateral mixed interpolation of tensorial components element (MITC4) and the cell-based smoothed finite element method (CSFEM) was formulated and implemented in this work for the analysis of free vibration and unidirectional buckling of shell structures. This formulation was applied to numerous numerical examples of non-woven fabrics. As CSFEM schemes do not require coordinate transformation, spurious modes and numerical instabilities are prevented using bilinear quadrilateral element subdivided into two, three and four smoothing cells. An improvement of the original CSFEM formulation was made regarding the calculation of outward unit normal vectors, which allowed to remove the integral operator in the strain smoothing operation. This procedure conducted both to the simplification of the developed formulation and the reduction of computational cost. A wide range of values for the thickness-to-length ratio and edge boundary conditions were analysed. The developed numerical model proved to overcome the shear locking phenomenon with success, revealing both reduced implementation effort and computational cost in comparison to the conventional FEM approach. The cell-based strain smoothing technique used in this work yields accurate results and generally attains higher convergence rate in energy at low computational cost.     

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF CLOSURE BEHAVIOUR OF FATIGUE CRACKS IN RESIDUAL STRESS FIELDS

An elastic-plastic finite element analysis with high order elements is performed to examine closure behaviour of fatigue. cracks in residua1 stress fieids and the numerical results are then compared with experimental results. The finite element analysis, performed under plane stress using 8-node isoparametric elements, can predict fatigue crack closure behaviour through residual stress fields very well. The crack opening and closing behaviour through a compressive residual stress field is found to be complicated and influenced by the applied load magnitude and the location of the crack tip. Three different types of crack opening behaviour, namely, normal, unsymmetric partial and symmetric partial crack opening behaviour are observed through a compressive residual stress field. The partial crack opening stress intensity factor including the partial crack opening effect is recommended for the prediction of fatigue crack growth through a compressive residual stress field.     

Control of zero-energy modes in 9-node plane element

For plane stress/plane strain analysis, the 9-node quadrilateral element performs better than the corresponding 8-node element, especially for non-rectangular shapes. For improved element flexibility and lower computer cost, 2 × 2 quadrature is generally preferable to 3 × 3 quadrature. Unfortunately the 9-node element contains spurious zero-energy modes when under-integrated. A method is proposed to restrain these modes without significant loss of accuracy or added cost.     

Computational aspects of vector-like parametrization of three-dimensional finite rotations

Theoretical and computational aspects of vector-like parametrization of three-dimensional finite rotations, which uses only three rotation parameters, are examined in detail in this work. The relationship of the proposed parametrization with the intrinsic representation of finite rotations (via an orthogonal matrix) is clearly identified. Careful considerations of the consistent linearization procedure pertinent to the proposed parametrization of finite rotations are presented for the chosen model problem of Reissner's non-linear beam theory. Pertaining details of numerical implementation are discussed for the simplest choice of the finite element interpolations for a 2-node three-dimensional beam element. A number of numerical simulations in three-dimensional finite rotation analysis are presented in order to illustrate the proposed approach.     

Stability analysis of an explicit finite element scheme for plane wave motions in elastic solids

 Expressions for critical timesteps are provided for an explicit finite element method for plane elastodynamic problems in isotropic, linear elastic solids. Both 4-node and 8-node quadrilateral elements are considered. The method involves solving for the eigenvalues directly from the eigenvalue problem at the element level. The characteristic polynomial is of order 8 for 4-node elements and 16 for 8-node elements. Due to the complexity of these equations, direct solution of these polynomials had not been attempted previously. The commonly used critical time-step estimates in the literature were obtained by reducing the characteristic equation for 4-node elements to a second-order equation involving only the normal strain modes of deformation. Furthermore, the results appear to be valid only for lumped-mass 4-node elements. In this paper, the characteristic equations are solved directly for the eigenvalues using <ty>Mathematica<ty> and critical time-step estimates are provided for both lumped and consistent mass matrix formulations. For lumped-mass method, both full and reduced integration are considered. In each case, the natural modes of deformation are obtained and it is shown that when Poisson's ratio is below a certain transition value, either shear-mode or hourglass mode of deformation dominates depending on the formulation. And when Poisson's ratio is above the transition value, in all the cases, the uniform normal strain mode dominates. Consequently, depending on Poisson's ratio the critical time-step also assumes two different expressions. The approach used in this work also has a definite pedagogical merit as the same approach is used in obtaining time-step estimates for simpler problems such as rod and beam elements. Received: 8 January 2002 / Accepted: 12 July 2002 The support of NSF under grant number DMI-9820880 is gratefully acknowledged.     

Application of three­dimensional numerical simulation to analysis of development of deformation zone at beginning of aluminium extrusion process

Abstract

Understanding the thermomechanical phenomena that occur during aluminium extrusion with respect to the variations of temperature, flow stress, strain, and strain rate is of importance for process optimisation. Conventional analytical methods are restricted to the steady state stage of the process and thus cannot provide an insight into the dynamic changes taking place during the initial stage. In the present work, three­dimensional simulations using the finite element method were carried out to analyse the development of the deformation zone at the die front and the temperature evolution, before the process attains the steady state. The analysis revealed that a change in friction factor at the billet/container interface from 0.3 to 0.9 enlarges the dead metal zone. However, its size appears unaffected by a change of die orifice shape from round to square at the same reduction ratio. The increase in friction results in an increase of initial extrusion load of about 6%.     

On improved hybrid finite elements with rotational degrees of freedom

A set of three new hybrid elements with rotational degrees-of-freedom (d.o.f.'s) is introduced. The solid, 8-node, hexahedron element is developed for solving three-dimensional elasticity problems. This element has three translational and three rotational d.o.f.'s at each node and is based on a 42-parameter. three-dimensional stress field in the natural convected co-ordinate system. For two-dimensional, plane elasticity problems, an improved triangular hybrid element and a quadrilateral hybrid element are presented. These elements use two translational and one rotational d.o.f. at each node. Three different sets of five-parameter stress fields defined in a natural convected co-ordinate system for the entire element are used for the mixed triangular element. The mixed quadrilateral element is based on a nine-parameter complete linear stress field in natural space. The midside translational d.o.f.'s are expressed in terms of the corner nodal translations and rotations using appropriate transformations. The stiffness matrix is derived based on the Hellinger–Reissner variational principle. The elements pass the patch test and demonstrate an improved performance over the existing elements for prescribed test examples.     

Explicit dynamic analysis of elasto-plastic laminated composite shells: implementation of non-iterative stress update schemes for the HOFFMAN yield criterion

The dynamic analysis of composite shell structures is carried out by an explicit finite element code employing 4-node one-point quadrature elements. The anisotropic Hoffman yield criterion is adopted to model the laminates. The formulation for stress update using a backward Euler scheme is presented in the plane stress subspace. Several numerical examples are presented. The issue of implementing single-iteration schemes for stress update is also investigated.     

双金属复合材料固相结合数值仿真研究

基于大变形弹塑性有限元理论,采用ANSYS有限元程序,通过建立合理的有限元分析模型,对Cu/Al双金属复合材料静液挤压固相结合的非稳态过程进行了数值模拟研究,得到了变形体在挤压过程中的等效应力、应变分布及相对滑动量随摩擦系数的变化情况,揭示了组元金属在静液挤压成形过程中的流动规律,指出在一定的变形量条件下,增大内外层金属之间的摩擦系数是较好实现内外层金属固相结合的主要方法.