Macro-element analysis

In recent years methods of analyzing plates in bending via large or macro-element have been studied. Herein, a method of studying plate behavior by a macro-flexibility approach is introduced. Deflected shapes of macro-elements of rectangular shapes were obtained by a shape function that satisfies all four boundary conditions and the bi-harmonic equation. The shape functions were a sum of sinusoidal and polynomial terms with undetermined coefficients. The elements that satisfy moment and shear conditions, were assembled by utilizing compatibility equations for deflection and slope. This resulted in equilibrium of forces and moments for all lines along the common edges of macro-elements. Three bounded domains were analyzed, and the results were compared to solutions obtained from classical and finite element methods. The convergence of the macro-approach was checked by progressively increasing the number of harmonics. The study of the numerical results indicates that excellent results can be obtained within the first three harmonics.     

Analysis of laminated shells of revolution with laminated stiffeners using a doubly curved quadrilateral finite element

A finite element analysis of laminated shells of revolution reinforced with laminated stifieners is described here-in. A doubly curved quadrilateral laminated anisotropic shell of revolution finite element of 48 d.o.f. is used in conjunction with two stiffener elements of 16 d.o.f. namely: (i) A laminated anisotropic parallel circle stiffener element (PCSE); (ii) A laminated anisotropic meridional stiffener element (MSE).These stifiener elements are formulated under line member assumptions as degenerate cases of the quadrilateral shell element to achieve compatibility all along the shell-stifiener junction lines. The solutions to the problem of a stiffened cantilever cylindrical shell are used to check the correctness of the present program while it's capability is shown through the prediction of the behavior of an eccentrically stiffened laminated hyperboloidal shell.     

Finite element analysis of eccentrically stiffened plates in free vibration

A compound finite element model is developed to investigate eccentrically stiffened plates in free vibration. The plate elements and beam elements are treated as integral parts of a compound section, and not as independent bending components. The derivation is based on the assumptions of small deflection theory. In the orthogonally stiffened directions of the compound section, the neutral surfaces may not coincide. They lie between the middle surface of the plate and the centroidal axes of the stiffeners. The results of this study are compared with existing ones and with those of the orthotropic plate approximation. Modifications to the existing equivalent orthotropic rigidities are proposed.     

Finite element analysis of stiffened plates

A finite element method is presented in which the constraint between stiffener and member is imposed by means of Lagrange multipliers. This is performed on the functional level, forming augmented variational principles. In order to simplify the initial development and implementation of the proposed method, two-dimensional stiffened beam finite elements are developed. Several such elements are formulated, each showing monotonic convergence in numerical tests. In the development of stiffened plate finite elements, the bending and membrane behaviors are treated seperately. For each, the stiffness matrix of a standard plate element is modified to account for an added beam element (representing the stiffener) and additional terms imposing the constraint between the two. The resulting stiffened plate element was implemented in the SAPIV finite element code. Exact solutions are not known for rib-reinforced plated structures, but results of numerical tests converge monotonically to a value in the vicinity of an approximate “smeared” series solution.     

Four- and eight-node hybrid-Trefftz quadrilateral finite element models for helmholtz problem

In this paper, four- and eight-node quadrilateral finite element models which can readily be incorporated into the standard finite element program framework are devised for plane Helmholtz problems. In these models, frame (boundary) and domain approximations are defined. The former is obtained by nodal interpolation and the latter is truncated from Trefftz solution sets. The equality of the two approximations are enforced along the element boundary. Both the Bessel and plane wave solutions are employed to construct the domain approximation. For full rankness, a minimal of four and eight domain modes are required for the four- and eight-node elements, respectively. By using local coordinates and directions, rank sufficient and invariant elements with minimal and close to minimal numbers of domain approximation modes are devised. In most tests, the proposed hybrid-Trefftz elements with the same number of nodes yield close solutions. In absolute majority of the tests, the proposed elements are considerably more accurate than their single-field counterparts.     

Compressive buckling analysis and design of stiffened flat plates with multilayered composite reinforcement

This paper describes an analysis and its application in design for compressive buckling of flat stiffened plates considered as an assemblage of linked orthotropic flat plate and beam elements. Plates can be multilayered, with possible coupling between bending and stretching. Structural lips and beads are idealized as beams. The plate and the beam elements are matched along their common junctions for displacement continuity and force equilibrium in an exact manner. Buckling loads are found as the lowest of all possible general and local failure modes. The mode shape is used to determine whether buckling is a local or general instability and is particularly useful to the designer in identifying the weak elements for redesign purposes. Typical design curves are presented for the initial buckling of a hat stiffened plate locally reinforced with boron fiber composite.     

Nonlinear finite element analysis of elastic frames

A very simple and effective formulation and numerical procedure to remove the restriction of small rotations between two successive increments for the geometrically nonlinear finite element analysis of in-plane frames is presented. A co-rotational formulation combined with small deflection beam theory with the inclusion of the effect of axial force is adopted. A body attached coordinate is used to distinguish between rigid body and deformational rotations. The deformational nodal rotational angles are assumed to be small, and the membrane strain along the deformed beam axis obtained from the elongation of the arc length of the deformed beam element is assumed to be constant. The element internal nodal forces are calculated using the total deformational nodal rotations in the body attached coordinate. The element stiffness matrix is obtained by superimposing the bending and the geometric stiffness matrices of the elementary beam element and the stiffness matrix of the linear bar element. An incremental iterative method based on the Newton-Raphson method combined with a constant arc length control method is employed for the solution of the nonlinear equilibrium equations. In order to improve convergence properties of the equilibrium iteration, a two-cycle iteration scheme is introduced. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.     

Elastic torsion of thin walled bars of variable cross sections

An application of the finite element method to the theory of thin walled bars of variable cross sections has been presented in this paper. A solution of this problem is based on the linear membrane shell theory with the application of Vlasov's assumptions. A bar is divided into elements along its longitudinal axis and then, a shell mid-surface of the element is approximated by arbitrary triangular Subelements. Nodal displacements of the element are assumed to be polynomials of the third order and the equivalent stiffness matrix is obtained. Calculated nodal displacements enable an analysis of normal and shearing stresses.     

An equilibrium method for stress calculation using finite element displacement models

The stress computation concept described in [1]is extended here to arbitrary meshes and elements — in particular to triangular elements. After calculating the nodal displacements — using complete and conforming displacement models — we assume linear stress distributions and corresponding virtual displacements at element peripheries. The nodal stress values are then determined by the principle of virtual work. The right-hand side of the resulting system of algebraic equations consists of the work done by the known nodal stress resultants acting along the virtual displacements. In general, the system of equations is nonquadratic on the structural level. Gauss's transformation produces a symmetric, positive definite band matrix. This kind of stress calculation is called the equilibrium method.A dual node method is also given. It involves the inversion of element matrices instead of the master matrix.Various examples of plane stress, plate bending and shell problems show much better accuracy of stresses in comparison with conventional methods. Furthermore, these techniques improve the computational efficiency considerably. There is also a special advantage in the possibility of choosing arbitrary subregions of the structure for stress calculation.     

8- and 12-node plane hybrid stress-function elements immune to severely distorted mesh containing elements with concave shapes

By simply improving the first version of hybrid stress element method proposed by Pian, several 8- and 12-node plane quadrilateral elements, which are immune to severely distorted mesh containing elements with concave shapes, are successfully developed. Firstly, instead of the stresses, the stress function ? is regarded as the functional variable and introduced into the complementary energy functional. Then, the fundamental analytical solutions (in global Cartesian coordinates) of ? are taken as the trial functions for 2D finite element models, and meanwhile, the corresponding unknown stress-function constants are introduced. Thus, the resulting stress fields must be more reasonable because both the equilibrium and the compatibility relations can be satisfied. Thirdly, by using the principle of minimum complementary energy, these unknown stress-function constants can be expressed in terms of the displacements along element boundaries, which can be interpolated directly by the element nodal displacements. Finally, the complementary energy functional can be rewritten in terms of element nodal displacement vector, and thus, the element stiffness matrix of such hybrid stress-function (HS-F) element is obtained. This technique establishes a universal frame for developing reasonable hybrid stress elements based on the principle of minimum complementary energy. And the first hybrid stress element proposed by Pian is just a special case within this frame. Following above procedure, two 8-node and two 12-node quadrilateral plane elements are constructed by employing different fundamental analytical solutions of Airy stress function. Numerical results show that, the 8-node and 12-node models can produce the exact solutions for pure bending and linear bending problems, respectively, even the element shape degenerates into triangle and concave quadrangle. Furthermore, these elements do not possess any spurious zero energy mode and rotational frame dependence.     

A FEM-based direct method for material reconstruction inverse problem in soft tissue elastography

A novel finite element method (FEM) based direct method is developed for the material reconstruction inverse problem in soft tissue elastography. The solution is obtained by minimising an objective function, defined as the sum of the square of the residual norms at all nodes, where the nodal residual norm is defined as a linear function of elasticity parameters of the associated elements. The measured deformation is enforced directly and satisfying the equilibrium at every node is utilised as the optimisation objective. As a result, the soft tissue elastography can be obtained directly by solving the resulting set of linear equations.     

Finite element program for solution of geotechnical problems

A program, named RODSIM, based on the finite element displacement method has been developed, tested and applied to the solution of major geotechnical problems. It is specially suitable to analyze deformations due to sequential excavation of soil supported by diaphragm walls with anchors or struts in which case it produces the bending moments, shear forces, axial forces, horizontal and vertical pressures along the wall, after deformation. All element matrices are evaluated by exact integration considering the Young's modulus of the orthotropic, cross-anisotropic or isotropic material varying linearly within the six node triangular element. The node numbering system may be optimized automatically.     

A discrete Kirchoff plate bending element with loof nodes

The majority of existing flat shell finite elements suffer from the deficiencies of displacement incompatibility, singularity when the elements are coplanar at a node, inability to model intersections and low-order membrane strain representation. In this paper, a plate bending element, labeled DKL (for Discrete Kirchoff element with Loof nodes), with the same nodal configuration as a triangular Semiloff plate element, but not formulated through the isoparametric concept is presented. This element when superposed with the linear strain triangle results in a faceted shell element free from the abovementioned deficiencies. Various numerical examples are tested using this plate element so as to demonstrate its reliability, accuracy and convergence characteristics.     

Transition finite elements with temperature and temperature gradients as primary variables for axisymmetric heat conduction

This paper presents finite element formulation for a special class of elements referred to as “transition finite elements” for axisymmetric heat conduction. The transition elements are necessary in applications requiring the use of both axisymmetric solid elements and axisymmetric shell elements. The elements permit transition from the solid portion of the structure to the shell portion of the structure. A novel feature of the formulation presented here is that nodal temperatures as well as nodal temperature gradients are retained as primary variables. The weak formulation of the Fourier heat conduction equation is constructed in the cylindrical co-ordinate system (r, z). The element geometry is defined in terms of the co-ordinates of the nodes as well as the nodal point normals for the nodes lying on the middle surface of the element. The element temperature field is approximated in terms of element approximation functions, nodal temperatures and the nodal temperature gradients. The properties of the transition elements are then derived using the weak formulation and the element temperature approximation. The formulation presented here permits linear temperature distribution through the element thickness. Convective boundaries as well as distributed heat flux is permitted on all four faces of the element. Furthermore, the element formulation also permits distributed heat flux and orthotropic material behaviour. Numerical examples are presented, first to illustrate the accuracy of the formulation and second to demonstrate its usefulness in practical applications. Numerical results are also compared with the theoretical solutions.     

Finite element free vibration of eccentrically stiffened plates

An isoparametric stiffened plate element is introduced for the free vibration analysis of eccentrically stiffened plates. The element has the ability to accommodate irregular boundaries. Moreover, the formulation considers shear deformation, hence, the formulation is applicable to both thick and thin plates. In the present formulation, the stiffeners can be placed anywhere within the plate element and they need not necessarily follow the nodal lines. In addition, the effects of lumped and consistent mass matrices on natural frequencies of stiffened plates are investigated. The effects of several parameters of the stiffener—eccentricity, shape, torsional stiffness etc.—on the natural frequencies of the stiffened plates are studied.     

Finite element buckling analysis of stiffened plates

An isoparametric stiffened plate bending element for the buckling analysis of stiffened plates has been presented. In the present approach, the stiffener can be positioned anywhere within the plate element and need not necessarily be placed on the nodal lines. The element, being isoparametric quadratic, can readily accommodate curved boundaries, laminated materials and transverse shear deformation. The formulation is applicable to thin as well as thick plates. The buckling loads for various rectangular and skew stiffened plates with varying skew angles and stiffness parameters have been indicated. The results show good agreement with those published.     

Analysis of target configurations under dead loads for cable-supported bridges

This paper presents a rigorous approach for analyzing the target configurations of cable-supported structures under dead loads by the Newton–Raphson method. A linearized equilibrium equation of a cable element, which includes the nodal coordinates and the unstrained element length as unknowns, is formulated using the analytical solution of an elastic catenary cable. An incremental equilibrium equation for a single cable is formed with the proposed equilibrium matrices of cable elements. The geometry of the target configuration of a cable-supported structure under dead loads is utilized to solve the incremental equilibrium equation. Detailed procedures to analyze the target configurations of suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges are presented. The efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed method are demonstrated through numerical examples.     

Shape from shading with a linear triangular element surface model

The authors propose to combine a triangular element surface model with a linearized reflectance map to formulate the shape-from-shading problem. The main idea is to approximate a smooth surface by the union of triangular surface patches called triangular elements and express the approximating surface as a linear combination of a set of nodal basis functions. Since the surface normal of a triangular element is uniquely determined by the heights of its three vertices (or nodes), image brightness can be directly related to nodal heights using the linearized reflectance map. The surface height can then be determined by minimizing a quadratic cost functional corresponding to the squares of brightness errors and solved effectively with the multigrid computational technique. The proposed method does not require any integrability constraint or artificial assumptions on boundary conditions. Simulation results for synthetic and real images are presented to illustrate the performance and efficiency of the method     

Stiffened plate plane stress elements for the analysis of ships' structures

A new approach has been suggested to account for the stiffeners within the plate element under plane stress. It caters accurately the spacing and orientation of the stiffeners. The derivation of the stiffeness matrix of the stiffeners placed within isoparametric and triangular elements has been presented. The advantages of the proposed approach over the conventional models have been indicated. The paper incorporates the results of a stiffened deep beam, a rectangular ship plating and a typical web frame of a tanker obtained by using these elements.