Free vibration analysis of thin plates using Hermite reproducing kernel Galerkin meshfree method with sub-domain stabilized conforming integration

A Hermite reproducing kernel (HRK) Galerkin meshfree formulation is presented for free vibration analysis of thin plates. In the HRK approximation the plate deflection is approximated by the deflection as well as slope nodal variables. The nth order reproducing conditions are imposed simultaneously on both the deflectional and rotational degrees of freedom. The resulting meshfree shape function turns out to have a much smaller necessary support size than its standard reproducing kernel counterpart. Obviously this reduction of minimum support size will accelerate the computation of meshfree shape function. To meet the bending exactness in the static sense and to remain the spatial stability the domain integration for stiffness as well as mass matrix is consistently carried out by using the sub-domain stabilized conforming integration (SSCI). Subsequently the proposed formulation is applied to study the free vibration of various benchmark thin plate problems. Numerical results uniformly reveal that the present method produces favorable solutions compared to those given by the high order Gauss integration (GI)-based Galerkin meshfree formulation. Moreover the effect of sub-domain refinement for the domain integration is also investigated.     

Solving high‐order partial differential equations with indirect radial basis function networks

This paper reports a new numerical method based on radial basis function networks (RBFNs) for solving high‐order partial differential equations (PDEs). The variables and their derivatives in the governing equations are represented by integrated RBFNs. The use of integration in constructing neural networks allows the straightforward implementation of multiple boundary conditions and the accurate approximation of high‐order derivatives. The proposed RBFN method is verified successfully through the solution of thin‐plate bending and viscous flow problems which are governed by biharmonic equations. For thermally driven cavity flows, the solutions are obtained up to a high Rayleigh number of 10⁷. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Hermite reproducing kernel Galerkin meshfree approach for buckling analysis of thin plates

A Hermite reproducing kernel Galerkin meshfree approach is proposed for buckling analysis of thin plates. This approach employs the Hermite reproducing kernel meshfree approximation that incorporates both the deflectional and rotational nodal variables into the approximation of the plate deflection and the C ¹ continuous approximation requirement for the Galerkin analysis of thin plates can be easily achieved herein. The strain smoothing operation is consistently introduced to construct the smoothed rotation and curvature fields which appear in the weak form governing the thin plate buckling. The domain integration of the weak form is carried out by the method of sub-domain stabilized conforming integration with the smoothed measures of rotation and curvature, as leads to an efficient discrete meshfree formulation for the eigenvalue problem of thin plate buckling. A series of benchmark buckling problems are presented to assess the proposed algorithm and the results uniformly demonstrate the present approach is very effective and it performs superiorly compared to the conventional Galerkin meshfree formulations whose domain integration are performed by Gauss quadrature rules.     

A Kriging‐based error‐reproducing and interpolating kernel method for improved mesh‐free approximations

An error‐reproducing and interpolating kernel method (ERIKM), which is a novel and improved form of the error‐reproducing kernel method (ERKM) with the nodal interpolation property, is proposed. The ERKM is a non‐uniform rational B‐splines (NURBS)‐based mesh‐free approximation scheme recently proposed by Shaw and Roy (Comput. Mech. 2007; 40 (1):127–148). The ERKM is based on an initial approximation of the target function and its derivatives by NURBS basis functions. The errors in the NURBS approximation and its derivatives are then reproduced via a family of non‐NURBS basis functions. The non‐NURBS basis functions are constructed using a polynomial reproduction condition and added to the NURBS approximation obtained in the first step. In the ERKM, the interpolating property at the boundary is achieved by repeating the knot (open knot vector). However, for most problems of practical interest, employing NURBS with open knots is not possible because of the complex geometry of the domain, and consequently ERKM shape functions turn out to be non‐interpolating. In ERIKM, the error functions are obtained through localized Kriging based on a minimization of the squared variance of the estimate with the reproduction property as a constraint. Interpolating error functions so obtained are then added to the NURBS approximant. While enriching the ERKM with the interpolation property, the ERIKM naturally possesses all the desirable features of the ERKM, such as insensitivity to the support size and ability to reproduce sharp layers. The proposed ERIKM is finally applied to obtain strong and weak solutions for a class of linear and non‐linear boundary value problems of engineering interest. These illustrations help to bring out the relative numerical advantages and accuracy of the new method to some extent. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A reproducing kernel method with nodal interpolation property

A general formulation for developing reproducing kernel (RK) interpolation is presented. This is based on the coupling of a primitive function and an enrichment function. The primitive function introduces discrete Kronecker delta properties, while the enrichment function constitutes reproducing conditions. A necessary condition for obtaining a RK interpolation function is an orthogonality condition between the vector of enrichment functions and the vector of shifted monomial functions at the discrete points. A normalized kernel function with relative small support is employed as the primitive function. This approach does not employ a finite element shape function and therefore the interpolation function can be arbitrarily smooth. To maintain the convergence properties of the original RK approximation, a mixed interpolation is introduced. A rigorous error analysis is provided for the proposed method. Optimal order error estimates are shown for the meshfree interpolation in any Sobolev norms. Optimal order convergence is maintained when the proposed method is employed to solve one‐dimensional boundary value problems. Numerical experiments are done demonstrating the theoretical error estimates. The performance of the method is illustrated in several sample problems. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A quasi‐linear reproducing kernel particle method

Reproducing kernel particle method (RKPM) has been applied to many large deformation problems. RKPM relies on polynomial reproducing conditions to yield desired accuracy and convergence properties but requires appropriate kernel support coverage of neighboring nodes to ensure kernel stability. This kernel stability condition is difficult to achieve for problems with large particle motion such as the fragment‐impact processes that commonly exist in extreme events. A new reproducing kernel formulation with ‘quasi‐linear’ reproducing conditions is introduced. In this approach, the first‐order polynomial reproducing conditions are approximately enforced to yield a nonsingular moment matrix. With proper error control of the first‐order completeness, nearly second‐order convergence rate in L2 norm can be achieved while maintaining kernel stability. The effectiveness of this quasi‐linear RKPM formulation is demonstrated by modeling several extremely large deformation and fragment‐impact problems. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A generalized approximation for the meshfree analysis of solids

This paper presents a new approach in the construction of meshfree approximations as well as the weak Kronecker‐delta property at the boundary, referred to as a generalized meshfree (GMF) approximation. The GMF approximation introduces an enriched basis function in the original Shepard's method. This enriched basis function is introduced to meet the linear or higher order reproducing conditions and at the same time to offer great flexibility on the control of the smoothness and convexity of the approximation. The construction of the GMF approximation can be viewed as a special root‐finding scheme of constraint equations that enforces that the basis functions are corrected and the reproducing conditions with certain orders are satisfied within a set of nodes. By choosing different basis functions, various convex and non‐convex approximations including moving least‐squares (MLS), reproducing kernel (RK), and maximum entropy (ME) approximations can be obtained. Furthermore, the basis function can also be translated or blended with other functions to generate a particular approximation for a special purpose. One application in this paper is to incorporate a blending function at the boundary based on the concept of local convexity for the non‐convex approximation, such as MLS, to acquire the weak Kronecker‐delta property. To achieve the higher order GMF approximation, two possible methods are also introduced. Several examples are presented to examine the effectiveness of various GMF approximations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dispersion and transient analyses of Hermite reproducing kernel Galerkin meshfree method with sub-domain stabilized conforming integration for thin beam and plate structures

A dispersion analysis is carried out to study the dynamic behavior of the Hermite reproducing kernel (HRK) Galerkin meshfree formulation for thin beam and plate problems. The HRK approximation utilizes both the nodal deflectional and rotational variables to construct the meshfree approximation of the deflection field within the reproducing kernel framework. The discrete Galerkin formulation is fulfilled with the method of sub-domain stabilized conforming integration. In the dispersion analysis following the HRK Galerkin meshfree semi-discretization, both the deflectional and rotational nodal variables are expressed by harmonic functions and then substituted into the semi-discretized equation to yield the characteristic equation. Subsequently the numerical frequency and phase speed can be obtained. The transient analysis with full-discretization is performed by using the central difference time integration scheme. The results of dispersion analysis of thin beams and plates show that compared to the conventional Gauss integration-based meshfree formulation, the proposed method has more favorable dispersion performance. Thereafter the superior performance of the present method is also further demonstrated by several transient analysis examples.     

Multi‐scale methods

In this paper four multiple scale methods are proposed. The meshless hierarchical partition of unity is used as a multiple scale basis. The multiple scale analysis with the introduction of a dilation parameter to perform multiresolution analysis is discussed. The multiple field based on a 1‐D gradient plasticity theory with material length scale is also proposed to remove the mesh dependency difficulty in softening/localization problems. A non‐local (smoothing) particle integration procedure with its multiple scale analysis are then developed. These techniques are described in the context of the reproducing kernel particle method. Results are presented for elastic‐plastic one‐dimensional problems and 2‐D large deformation strain localization problems to illustrate the effectiveness of these methods. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fast multipole boundary element method for solving the thin plate bending problem

A fast multipole boundary element method (BEM) for solving large-scale thin plate bending problems is presented in this paper. The method is based on the Kirchhoff thin plate bending theory and the biharmonic equation governing the deflection of the plate. First, the direct boundary integral equations and the conventional BEM for thin plate bending problems are reviewed. Second, the complex notation of the kernel functions, expansions and translations in the fast multipole BEM are presented. Finally, a few numerical examples are presented to show the accuracy and efficiency of the fast multipole BEM in solving thin plate bending problems. The bending rigidity of a perforated plate is evaluated using the developed code. It is shown that the fast multipole BEM can be applied to solve plate bending problems with good accuracy. Possible improvements in the efficiency of the method are discussed.     

Mixed plate bending elements based on least‐squares formulation

A finite element formulation for the bending of thin and thick plates based on least‐squares variational principles is presented. Finite element models for both the classical plate theory and the first‐order shear deformation plate theory (also known as the Kirchhoff and Mindlin plate theories, respectively) are considered. High‐order nodal expansions are used to construct the discrete finite element model based on the least‐squares formulation. Exponentially fast decay of the least‐squares functional, which is constructed using the L₂ norms of the equations residuals, is verified for increasing order of the nodal expansions. Numerical examples for the bending of circular, rectangular and skew plates with various boundary conditions and plate thickness are presented to demonstrate the predictive capability and robustness of the new plate bending elements. Plate bending elements based on this formulation are shown to be insensitive to both shear‐locking and geometric distortions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A unified 3D‐based technique for plate bending analysis using scaled boundary finite element method

This paper presents a unified technique for solving the plate bending problems by extending the scaled boundary finite element method. The formulation is based on the three‐dimensional governing equation without enforcing the kinematics of plate theory. Only the in‐plane dimensions are discretised into finite elements. Any two‐dimensional displacement‐based elements can be employed. The solution along the thickness is expressed analytically by using a matrix function. The proposed technique is consistent with the three‐dimensional theory and applicable to both thick and thin plates without exhibiting the numerical locking phenomenon. Moreover, the use of higher order spectral elements allows the proposed technique to better represent curved boundaries and to achieve high accuracy and fast convergence. Numerical examples of various plate structures with different thickness‐to‐length ratios demonstrate the applicability and accuracy of the proposed technique. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elastic large deflection analysis of plates subjected to uniaxial thrust using meshfree Mindlin-Reissner formulation

A meshfree approach for plate buckling/post-buckling problems in the case of uniaxial thrust is presented. A geometrical nonlinear formulation is employed using reproducing kernel approximation and stabilized conforming nodal integration. The bending components are represented by Mindlin–Reissner plate theory. The formulation has a locking-free property in imposing the Kirchhoff mode reproducing condition. In addition, in-plane deformation components are approximated by reproducing kernels. The deformation components are coupled to solve the general plate bending problem with geometrical non-linearity. In buckling/post-buckling analysis of plates, the in-plane displacement of the edges in their perpendicular directions is assumed to be uniform by considering the continuity of plating, and periodic boundary conditions are considered in assuming the periodicity of structures. In such boundary condition enforcements, some node displacements/rotations should be synchronized with others. However, the enforcements introduce difficulties in the meshfree approach because the reproducing kernel function does not have the so-called Kronecker delta property. In this paper, the multiple point constraint technique is introduced to treat such boundary conditions as well as the essential boundary conditions. Numerical studies are performed to examine the accuracy of the multiple point constraint enforcements. As numerical examples, buckling/post-buckling analyses of a rectangular plate and stiffened plate structure are presented to validate the proposed approach.     

A four‐node,shear‐deformable shell element developed via explicit Kirchhoff constraints

An efficient, four‐node quadrilateral shell element is formulated using a linear, first‐order shear deformation theory. The bending part of the formulation is constructed from a cross‐diagonal assembly of four three‐node anisoparametric triangular plate elements, referred to as MIN3. Closed‐form constraint equations, which arise from the Kirchhoff constraints in the thin‐plate limit, are derived and used to eliminate the degrees‐of‐freedom associated with the ‘internal’ node of the cross‐diagonal assembly. The membrane displacement field employs an Allman‐type, drilling degrees‐of‐freedom formulation. The result is a displacement‐based, fully integrated, four‐node quadrilateral element, MIN4T, possessing six degrees‐of‐freedom at each node. Results for a set of validation plate problems demonstrate that the four‐node MIN4T has similar robustness and accuracy characteristics as the original cross‐diagonal assembly of MIN3 elements involving five nodes. The element performs well in both moderately thick and thin regimes, and it is free of shear locking. Shell validation results demonstrate superior performance of MIN4T over MIN3, possibly as a result of its higher‐order interpolation of the membrane displacements. It is also noted that the bending formulation of MIN4T is kinematically compatible with the existing anisoparametric elements of the same order of approximation, which include a two‐node Timoshenko beam element and a three‐node plate element, MIN3. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quadratic NMS Mindlin‐plate‐bending element

The development of a robust and efficient quadratic Mindlin‐plate‐bending elements mainly by the use of non‐conforming displacement modes is presented in this paper. A brief review on the previous efforts to develop efficient non‐conforming Mindlin plate bending elements is also given. The behaviour of the newly proposed plate element is further improved by the combined use of nonconforming displacement modes, the selectively reduced integration scheme, and the assumed shear strain fields. Thus, the newly developed element has been designated as ‘NMS‐8P’. The improvement achieved may be attributable to the fact that the merits of these improvement techniques are merged in the formation of the new element in a complementary manner. The proposed 8‐node element passes the patch tests, does not show spurious mechanism, and does not produce shear locking phenomena even with distorted meshes. It is also shown that the element produces reliable solutions through numerical tests for standard benchmark problems. Copypright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A gradient reproducing kernel collocation method for boundary value problems

The earlier work in the development of direct strong form collocation methods, such as the reproducing kernel collocation method (RKCM), addressed the domain integration issue in the Galerkin type meshfree method, such as the reproducing kernel particle method, but with increased computational complexity because of taking higher order derivatives of the approximation functions and the need for using a large number of collocation points for optimal convergence. In this work, we intend to address the computational complexity in RKCM while achieving optimal convergence by introducing a gradient reproduction kernel approximation. The proposed gradient RKCM reduces the order of differentiation to the first order for solving second‐order PDEs with strong form collocation. We also show that, different from the typical strong form collocation method where a significantly large number of collocation points than the number of source points is needed for optimal convergence, the same number of collocation points and source points can be used in gradient RKCM. We also show that the same order of convergence rates in the primary unknown and its first‐order derivative is achieved, owing to the imposition of gradient reproducing conditions. The numerical examples are given to verify the analytical prediction. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A meshfree‐enriched finite element method for compressible and near‐incompressible elasticity

In this paper, a two‐dimensional displacement‐based meshfree‐enriched FEM (ME‐FEM) is presented for the linear analysis of compressible and near‐incompressible planar elasticity. The ME‐FEM element is established by injecting a first‐order convex meshfree approximation into a low‐order finite element with an additional node. The convex meshfree approximation is constructed using the generalized meshfree approximation method and it possesses the Kronecker‐delta property on the element boundaries. The gradient matrix of ME‐FEM element satisfies the integration constraint for nodal integration and the resultant ME‐FEM formulation is shown to pass the constant stress test for the compressible media. The ME‐FEM interpolation is an element‐wise meshfree interpolation and is proven to be discrete divergence‐free in the incompressible limit. To prevent possible pressure oscillation in the near‐incompressible problems, an area‐weighted strain smoothing scheme incorporated with the divergence‐free ME‐FEM interpolation is introduced to provide the smoothing on strains and pressure. With this smoothed strain field, the discrete equations are derived based on a modified Hu–Washizu variational principle. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for the compressible and near‐incompressible problems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved three‐node hybrid‐mixed element for Mindlin/Reissner plates

Based on the mixed shear projected (MiSP) approach [6], an enhanced bending approximation for homogeneous isotropic plates is presented. Some hard benchmark tests, as skew plate (30°) problem for instance, have often shown poor convergence when low order elements (3‐ or 4‐node element) are developed using linear approximations for kinematic variables. To put right this weakness, we propose a high‐order interpolation for rotational dofs which results in more rich bending curvatures. The mid‐side rotational nodes are eliminated using a combination of local discrete kinematic and constitutive Mindlin hypothesises. The derived 3‐node triangular element, called MiSP3+, is free of shear locking and passes all patch‐tests for thick and thin plates in an arbitrary mesh. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elasto‐plasticity revisited: numerical analysis via reproducing kernel particle method and parametric quadratic programming

Aiming to simplify the solution process of elasto‐plastic problems, this paper proposes a reproducing kernel particle algorithm based on principles of parametric quadratic programming for elasto‐plasticity. The parametric quadratic programming theory is useful and effective for the assessment of certain features of structural elasto‐plastic behaviour and can also be exploited for numerical iteration. Examples are presented to illustrate the essential aspects of the behaviour of the model proposed and the flexibility of the coupled parametric quadratic programming formulations with the reproducing kernel particle method. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.