Alternate hybrid stress finite element models

Alternate hybrid stress finite element models in which the internal equilibrium equations are satisfied on the average only, while the equilibrium equations along the interelement boundaries and the static boundary conditions are adhered to exactly a priori, are developed. The variational principle and the corresponding finite element formulation, which allows the standard direct stiffness method of structural analysis to be used, are discussed. Triangular elements for a moderately thick plate and a doubly-curved shallow thin shell are developed. Kinematic displacement modes, convergence criteria and bounds for the direct flexibility-influence coefficient are examined.     

A shell element for the prediction of residual load-carrying capacities due to delamination

This paper deals with layered plates and shells subjected to static loading. The kinematic assumptions are extended by a jump function in dependence of a damage parameter. Additionally, an intermediate layer is arranged at any position of the laminate. This allows numerical simulation of onset and growth of delaminations. The equations of the boundary value problem include besides the equilibrium in terms of stress resultants, the local equilibrium in terms of stresses, the geometric field equations, the constitutive equations, and a constraint which enforces the correct shape of a superposed displacement field through the thickness as well as boundary conditions. The weak form of the boundary value problem and the associated finite element formulation for quadrilaterals is derived. The developed shell element possesses the usual 5 or 6 degrees of freedom at the nodes. This is an essential feature since standard geometrical boundary conditions can be applied and the elements are applicable to shell intersection problems. With the developed model, residual load-carrying capacities of layered shells due to delamination failure are computed.     

A variational formulation for finite elasticity with independent rotation and Biot-axial fields

The fundamentals of the geometrically nonlinear mechanics of the three-dimensional elastic continuum are derived, starting from a general variational framework established for the polar model and passing through a constitutive definition of the non-polar medium itself. A constrained variational setting follows, having as unknown vector fields the displacement, the rotation vector and the axial of the Biot stress. It embraces both the rotational equilibrium and the characterization of the rotation as Euler-Lagrange equations. These conditions can then be satisfied in a weak sense within discrete approximations. It is also shown that the classical approach of the non-polar continuum can be accomodated as a particular case of the present formulation. A consistent linearization is then proposed and a simple solid finite element developed to test the computational viability of the formulation. A few examples assess the capability of the element to represent large three-dimensional rotations. Communicated by S. N. Atluri, 2 August 1996     

A simple finite element formulation of a higher-order theory for unsymmetrically laminated composite plates

A higher-order theory which satisfies zero transverse shear stress conditions on the bounding planes of a generally laminated fibre-reinforced composite plate subjected to transverse loads is developed. The displacement model accounts for non-linear distribution of inplane displacement components through the plate thickness and the theory requires no shear correction coefficients. A C∘ continuous displacement finite element formulation is presented and the coupled membrane-flexure behaviour of laminated plates is investigated. The nodal unknowns are the three displacements, two rotations and two higher-order functions as the generalized degrees of freedom. The simple isoparametric formulation developed here is capable of evaluating transverse shears and transverse normal stress accurately by using the equilibrium equations. The accuracy of the nine-noded Lagrangian quadrilateral element is then established by comparing the present results with the closed-form, three-dimensional elasticity and other finite element available solutions.     

垂直界面裂纹应力强度因子的加料有限元分析

为求解裂尖位于界面上的垂直双材料界面裂纹应力强度因子,发展了一种加料有限元方法。该方法应用Williams本征函数展开和线性变换方法求解裂尖渐进位移场,将该位移场加入常规单元位移模式中,得到加料垂直界面裂纹单元和过渡单元的位移模式,给出加料有限元方程。建立了典型垂直界面裂纹平面问题的加料有限元模型,求解加料有限元方程直接得到应力强度因子,与文献结果对比表明该方法具有较高的精度,可方便地推广应用于垂直界面裂纹的计算分析。     

Enhanced mixed interpolation XFEM formulations for discontinuous Timoshenko beam and Mindlin‐Reissner plate

Shear locking is a major issue emerging in the computational formulation of beam and plate finite elements of minimal number of degrees of freedom as it leads to artificial overstiffening. In this paper, discontinuous Timoshenko beam and Mindlin‐Reissner plate elements are developed by adopting the Hellinger‐Reissner functional with the displacements and through‐thickness shear strains as degrees of freedom. Heterogeneous beams and plates with weak discontinuity are considered, and the mixed formulation has been combined with the extended finite element method (FEM); thus, mixed enrichment functions are used. Both the displacement and the shear strain fields are enriched as opposed to the traditional extended FEM where only the displacement functions are enriched. The enrichment type is restricted to extrinsic mesh‐based topological local enrichment. The results from the proposed formulation correlate well with analytical solution in the case of the beam and in the case of the Mindlin‐Reissner plate with those of a finite element package (ABAQUS) and classical FEM and show higher rates of convergence. In all cases, the proposed method captures strain discontinuity accurately. Thus, the proposed method provides an accurate and a computationally more efficient way for the formulation of beam and plate finite elements of minimal number of degrees of freedom.     

New displacement hybrid finite element models for solid continua

The proposed finite element model is based on separate assumptions of interior and interelement displacements and on the assumed boundary tractions of each individual element. The associated variational functional for this model is presented. This method has the same merits of the assumed stress method (References 3 and 4) in that a compatible displacement function at the interelement boundary can be easily constructed, while it can easily be used for shells with distributed loads.     

A finite element formulation for piezoelectric shell structures considering geometrical and material non‐linearities

In this paper, we present a non‐linear finite element formulation for piezoelectric shell structures. Based on a mixed multi‐field variational formulation, an electro‐mechanical coupled shell element is developed considering geometrically and materially non‐linear behavior of ferroelectric ceramics. The mixed formulation includes the independent fields of displacements, electric potential, strains, electric field, stresses, and dielectric displacements. Besides the mechanical degrees of freedom, the shell counts only one electrical degree of freedom. This is the difference in the electric potential in the thickness direction of the shell. Incorporating non‐linear kinematic assumptions, structures with large deformations and stability problems can be analyzed. According to a Reissner–Mindlin theory, the shell element accounts for constant transversal shear strains. The formulation incorporates a three‐dimensional transversal isotropic material law, thus the kinematic in the thickness direction of the shell is considered. The normal zero stress condition and the normal zero dielectric displacement condition of shells are enforced by the independent resultant stress and the resultant dielectric displacement fields. Accounting for material non‐linearities, the ferroelectric hysteresis phenomena are considered using the Preisach model. As a special aspect, the formulation includes temperature‐dependent effects and thus the change of the piezoelectric material parameters due to the temperature. This enables the element to describe temperature‐dependent hysteresis curves. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A hybrid finite element formulation of the linear biphasic equations for hydrated soft tissue

A hybrid finite element method has been developed for application to the linear biphasic model of soft tissues. The biphasic model assumes that hydrated soft tissue is a mixture of two incompressible, immiscible phases, one solid and one fluid, and employs mixture theory to derive governing equations for its mechanical behaviour. These equations are time dependent, involving both fluid and solid velocities and solid displacement, and will be solved by spatial finite element and temporal finite difference approximation. The first step in the derivation of this hybrid method is application of a finite difference rule to the solid phase, thus obtaining equations with only velocities at discrete times as primary variables. A weighted residual statement of the temporally discretized governing equations, employing C° continuous interpolations of the solid and fluid phase velocities and discontinuous interpolations of the pore pressure and elastic stress, is then derived. The stress and pressure functions are chosen so that the total momentum equation of the mixture is satisfied; they are jointly referred to as an equilibrated stress and pressure field. The corresponding weighting functions are chosen to satisfy a relationship analogous to this equilibrium relation. The resulting matrix equations are symmetric. As an illustration of the hybrid biphasic formulation, six-noded triangular elements with complete linear, several incomplete quadratic, and complete quadratic stress and pressure fields in element local co-ordinates are developed for two dimensional analysis and tested against analytical solutions and a mixed-penalty finite element formulation of the same equations. The hybrid method is found to be robust and produce excellent results; preferred elements are identified on the basis of these results.     

A localized mixed‐hybrid method for imposing interfacial constraints in the extended finite element method (XFEM)

The paper proposes an approach for the imposition of constraints along moving or fixed immersed interfaces in the context of the extended finite element method. An enriched approximation space enables consistent representation of strong and weak discontinuities in the solution fields along arbitrarily‐shaped material interfaces using an unfitted background mesh. The use of Lagrange multipliers or penalty methods is circumvented by a localized mixed hybrid formulation of the model equations. In a defined region in the vicinity of the interface, the original problem is re‐stated in its auxiliary formulation. The availability of the auxiliary variable enables the consideration of a variety of interface constraints in the weak form. The contribution discusses the weak imposition of Dirichlet‐ and Neumann‐type interface conditions as well as continuity requirements not fulfilled a priori by the enriched approximation. The properties of the proposed approach applied to two‐dimensional linear scalar‐ and vector‐valued elliptic problems are investigated by studying the convergence behavior. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A mixed variational principle for finite element analysis

A mixed variational principle is developed and utilized in a finite element formulation. The procedure is mixed in the sense that it is based upon a combination of modified potential and complementary energy principles. Compatibility and equilibrium are satisfied throughout the domain a priori, leaving only the boundary conditions to be satisfied by the variational principle. This leads to a finite element model capable of relaxing troublesome interelement continuity requirements. The nodal concept is also abandoned and, instead, generalized parameters serve as the degrees-of-freedom. This allows for easier construction of higher order elements with the displacements and stresses treated in the same manner. To illustrate these concepts, plane stress and plate bending analyses are presented.     

A 9-node mixed shell element based on the Hu-Washizu principle

This paper proposes a new 9-node degenerated shell element based on a nonlinear mixed formulation. To avoid locking phenomena, we present a mixed formulation based on a three-field Hu-Washizu principle in which displacements, the Green strain tensors, and the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensors are independently assumed. In approximating strain and stress fields, covariant components of the strains and stresses measured in the element curvilinear coordinate system are interpolated by the common polynomial functions over an element. Parameter vectors of stress and strain interpolants are elementwise eliminated so that we may obtain an element stiffness matrix similar to that of the displacement model. This formulation is mathematically clear in the variational context, and can include geometrical and material nonlinearities without spoiling such clearness. Numerical results based on our approach are illustrated with satisfactory behavior of the element observed.     

A mixed finite element for the nonlinear analysis of in-plane loaded masonry walls

A mixed membrane eight-node quadrilateral finite element for the analysis of masonry walls is presented. Assuming that a nonlinear and history-dependent 2D stress-strain constitutive law is used to model masonry material, the element derivation is based on a Hu-Washizu variational statement, involving displacement, strain, and stress fields as primary variables. As the behavior of masonry structures is often characterized by strain localization phenomena, due to strain softening at material level, a discontinuous, piecewise constant interpolation of the strain field is considered at element level, to capture highly nonlinear strain spatial distributions also within finite elements. Newton's method of solution is adopted for the element state determination problem. For avoiding pathological sensitivity to the finite element mesh, a novel algorithm is proposed to perform an integral-type nonlocal regularization of the constitutive equations in the present mixed formulation. By the comparison with competing serendipity displacement-based formulation, numerical simulations prove high performances of the proposed finite element, especially when coarse meshes are adopted.     

Finite element analysis of stiffened laminated plates under transverse loading

A finite element model is developed to study the behavior of stiffened laminated plates under transverse loadings. Transverse shear flexibility is incorporated in both beam and plate displacement fields. A laminated plate element with 45 degrees of freedom is used in conjunction with a laminated beam element having 12 degrees of freedom for the bending analysis of eccentrically-stiffened laminated plates. The validity of the formulation is demonstrated by comparing with the available solutions in the literature. The numerical results are presented for eccentrically-stiffened layered plates having various boundary conditions and with stiffeners varying in number.     

A new boundary-type finite element for 2-D- and 3-D-elastic structures

In this paper we discuss the theoretical and numerical formulation of 3-D Trefitz elements. Starting from the variational principle with the so-called hybrid stress method, the trial functions for the stresses have to fulfil the Beltrami equations, which means also the compatibility equations for the strains. The divergence theorem can be applied, and one arrives at a pure boundary formulation in the sense of the Trefftz method. Besides the resulting variational formulation, different regularizations of the interelement conditions are investigated by numerical tests. Two examples show the numerical efficiency of the derived elements. First, a geometric linear 3-D example is presented to show the effects on distorted element meshes. The third example shows the geometrically non-linear analysis of a shallow cylindrical shell segment under a singe load.     

A refined curved element for thin shells of revolution

A refined axisymmetric curved finite element for the analysis of thin elastic-plastic shells of revolution is described in the paper. The improved element is obtained by employing cubic polynomials in terms of local Cartesian co-ordinates for the assumed in-plane and out-of-plane displacements. This introduces into the solution two internal degrees of freedom in the cord direction of each element. These internal degrees of freedom are removed by static condensation before assembling the individual element stiffness matrices, and are subsequently recovered after the nodal displacements are obtained. On comparison with the previous formulation, this procedure greatly improves the accuracy of the solution especially with regards to in-plane stress-resultants at discontinuities in the meridional curvature and interelement equilibrium of forces. The latter fact makes it possible to analyse shells with a discontinuous meridional slope. In using this element, improvement in the convergence of the elastic-plastic solutions has also been observed. Several examples illustrate the quality of solutions. The reported study is limited to axisymmetric loadings cum boundary conditions.     

An improved isoparametric quadratic element based on refined zigzag theory to compute interlaminar stresses of multilayered anisotropic plates

An improved eight-noded isoparametric quadratic plate bending element based on refined higher-order zigzag theory (RHZT) has been developed in the present study to determine the interlaminar stresses of multilayered composite laminates. The C⁰ continuous element has been formulated by considering warping function in the displacement field based on the RHZT. Shear locking phenomenon is avoided by considering substitute shear strain field. The continuity of transverse shear stresses cannot be ensured by the proposed zigzag formulation directly, and hence, the continuity conditions of transverse shear stresses have been established by using the three-dimensional (3D) stress equilibrium equations in the present study. The transverse shear stresses are computed in a simplified manner using the differential equations of stress equilibrium. A finite element code is developed by using MATLAB software package. The performance of the present finite element model is validated by comparing the results with 3D elasticity solutions. The superiority of the proposed element in view of computational efficiency, simplicity, and accuracy has been examined by comparing the present solutions with those available in published literature using other elements.     

Non-local yield limit degradation

Presented is a new type of a non-local continuum model which avoids problems of convergence at mesh refinement and spurious mesh sensitivity in a softening continuum characterized by degradation of the yield limit. The key idea, which has recently been proposed in a general context and has already been applied to softening damage due to stiffness degradation, is to apply the non-local concept only to those parameters which cause the degradation while keeping the definition of the strains local. Compared to the previously advanced fully non-local continuum formulation, the new approach has the advantage that the stresses are subjected to the standard differential equations of equilibrium and standard boundary or interface conditions. The new formulation exhibits no zero-energy periodic modes, imbrication of finite elements is unnecessary and finite elements with standard continuity requirements are sufficient. Two-dimensional finite element solutions with up to 3248 degrees of freedom are presented to document convergence and efficacy. The formulation is applied to tunnel excavation in a soil stabilized by cement grouting, with the objective of preventing cave-in (burst) of the tunnel sides due to compression softening.     

Continuity conditions for finite element analysis of solids

In conventional finite element formulations the concept of node—a point where one of the shape functions is unitary and all others are nil—is used to advantage as it simplifies the definition of interelement continuity conditions. This constraint on the definition of the shape functions hinders the formulation of elements with complex shapes and, in particular, of equilibrium elements. In the approach presented herein linearly independent functions are defined within each element irrespectively of the location of the nodes. Interelement continuity conditions are imposed ‘a posteriori’, as in hybrid elements. The derivation of the element matrices is based upon the equations expressing equilibrium, compatibility and the constitutive relations without explicitly using variational principles. This results in a wider choice of available funciiuns ami in an easier way to formulate equilibrium elements and/or to use conforming or non-conforming elements. As the approach used is independent of the choice of basic functions and of the shape of the elements, it is perfectly general. It allows the parallel analysis of kinematically and statically admissible formulations, as proposed by Fraeijs de Veubeke.¹ As the interelement continuity conditions are imposed ‘a posteriori’ new variables are used to express this condition.