A Piezoelectric Finite Shell Element for the Geometrically Nonlinear Analysis of Sensors

A geometrically nonlinear finite element formulation to analyze piezoelectric shell structures is presented. The formulation is based on the mixed field variational functional of Hu–Washizu. Within this variational principle the independent fields are displacements, electric potential, strains, electric field, stresses and dielectric displacements. The mixed formulation allows an interpolation of the strains and the electric field through the shell thickness, which is an essential advantage when using a three dimensional material law. It is remarked that no simplification regarding the constitutive relation is assumed. The normal zero stress condition and the normal zero dielectric displacement condition are enforced by the independent resultant stress and resultant dielectric displacement fields. The shell structure is modeled by a reference surface with a four node element. Each node possesses six mechanical degrees of freedom, three displacements and three rotations, and one electrical degree of freedom, which is the difference of the electric potential through the shell thickness. The developed mixed hybrid shell element fulfills the in–plane, bending and shear patch tests, which have been adopted for coupled field problems. A numerical investigation of a smart antenna demonstrates the applicability of the piezoelectric shell element under the consideration of geometrical nonlinearity. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A mixed finite element formulation for piezoelectric shells

A finite element formulation to analyze piezoelectric shell problems is presented. A reference surface of the shell is modelled with a four node element. Each node possesses six mechanical degrees of freedom, three displacements and three rotations, and one electric degree of freedom, which is the difference of the electric potential in thickness direction. The formulation is based on the mixed field variational principle of Hu-Washizu. The independent fields are displacements u , electric potential φ, strains E , electric field E , stresses S and dielectric displacements D . The mixed formulation allows an interpolation of the strains and the electric field in thickness direction. Accordingly a three-dimensional material law is incorporated in the variational formulation. It is remarked that no simplification regarding the constitutive law is assumed. The formulation allows the consideration of arbitrary constitutive relations. The normal zero stress condition and the normal zero dielectric displacement condition are enforced by the independent stress and dielectric displacement fields. They are defined as zero in thickness direction. The present shell element fulfills the important patch tests: the in-plane, bending and shear test. Some numerical examples demonstrate the applicability of the present piezoelectric shell element. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Advanced finite element formulations for modeling thin piezoelectric structures

This contribution is concerned with mixed finite element formulations for modeling piezoelectric beam and shell structures. Due to the electromechanical coupling, specific deformation modes are joined with electric field components. In bending dominated problems incompatible approximation functions of these fields cause incorrect results. These effects occur in standard finite element formulations, where interpolation functions of lowest order are used. A mixed variational approach is introduced to overcome these problems. The mixed formulation allows for a consistent approximation of the electromechanical coupled problem. It utilizes six independent fields and could be derived from a Hu-Washizu variational principle. Displacements, rotations and the electric potential are employed as nodal degrees of freedom. According to the Timoshenko theory (beam) and the Reissner-Mindlin theory (shell), the formulations account for constant transversal shear strains. To incorporate three dimensional constitutive relations all transversal components of the electric field and the strain field are enriched by mixed finite element interpolations. Thus the complete piezoelectric coupling is appropriately captured. The common assumption of vanishing transversal stress and dielectric displacement components is enforced in an integral sense. Some numerical examples will demonstrate the capability of the presented finite element formulation. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A solid shell finite element formulation to simulate the behaviour of thin dielectric elastomer structures

To analyse the behaviour of thin structures of dielectric elastomer (DE) material a solid shell finite element is presented. The main characteristics of DEs are a non-linear hyper elastic behaviour, the quasi-incompressibility, and the ability to transform electric energy into mechanical work. Applying a voltage to thin DE structures may produce large elongation strains of 120-380%. These large strains, the efficient electro-mechanical coupling, and the light weight make DEs very attractive for the usage in actuators. Thus, there is a need for detailed research. With respect to the electro-mechanical coupling a constitutive model is presented. An electric stress tensor and a total stress tensor are introduced by considering the electrical body force and couple in the balance of linear momentum and angular momentum, respectively. The governing equations are derived and embedded in the solid shell formulation. The element formulation is based on a Hu-Washizu mixed variational principle using six independent fields: displacements, electric potential, strains, electric field, mechanical stresses, and dielectric displacements. It allows large deformations and accounts for physical nonlinearities to capture two of the main characteristics of DEs. The shell element could be applied for the modelling of arbitrary curved thin structures. The ability of the present element formulation is demonstrated in several examples. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

自由边界条件壳体问题的bubble-稳定化混合有限元方法

针对自由边界条件壳体问题的经典混合变分模型发展局部bubble函数稳定化有限元逼近方法:逐单元附加带嵌入bubble函数的局部双线性型的稳定化法.已证明离散方程具有一致稳定性,从而经典InfSup条件被避免;同时给出最优误差估计     

对偶变量块体混合元及其位移元的收敛性和精度分析

弹性力学Hamilton正则方程和Hamilton混合元的等效刚度系数矩阵,均具有直观的辛特性.基于H R变分原理和弹性力学保辛理论建立的对偶变量块体混合元,其等效刚度系数矩阵同样具有直观的辛特性.根据对偶变量块体混合元列式,可直接建立问题的控制方程,进行混合法求解.同时,通过对偶变量块体混合元列式可以导出对偶变量块体位移元列式,建立问题的控制方程后,可先求位移的解.数值实例表明:线性8结点对偶变量块体位移减缩积分元的各力学量的收敛速度均衡、收敛过程稳定、结果精度高,其应力变量的收敛速度与传统的20结点位移协调减缩积分元接近.对偶变量块体位移元具有普适性.     

A new mixed finite element method for the Stokes problem

We propose a new mixed formulation of the Stokes problem where the extra stress tensor is considered. Based on such a formulation, a mixed finite element is constructed and analyzed. This new finite element has properties analogous to the finite volume methods, namely, the local conservation of the momentum and the mass. Optimal error estimates are derived. For the numerical implementation of this finite element, a hybrid form is presented. This work is a first step towards the treatment of viscoelastic fluid flows by mixed finite element methods.     

Coupling of mixed finite element and stabilized boundary element methods for a fluid–solid interaction problem in 3D

We introduce and analyze the coupling of a mixed finite element and a boundary element for a three‐dimensional time‐harmonic fluid–solid interaction problem. We consider a formulation in which the Cauchy stress tensor and the rotation are the main variables in the elastic structure and use the usual pressure formulation in the acoustic fluid. The mixed variational formulation in the solid is completed with boundary integral equations relating the Cauchy data of the acoustic problem on the coupling interface. A crucial point in our formulation is the stabilization technique introduced by Hiptmair and coworkers to avoid the well‐known instability issue appearing in the boundary element method treatment of the exterior Helmholtz problem. The main novelty of this formulation, with respect to a previous approach, consists in reducing the computational domain to the solid media and providing a more accurate treatment of the far field effect. We show that the continuous problem is well‐posed and propose a conforming Galerkin method based on the lowest‐order Arnold–Falk–Winther mixed finite element. Finally, we prove that the numerical scheme is convergent with optimal order.Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 1211–1233, 2014     

A family of mixed finite elements for the elasticity problem

Summary A new mixed finite element formulation for the equations of linear elasticity is considered. In the formulation the variables approximated are the displacement, the unsymmetric stress tensor and the rotation. The rotation act as a Lagrange multiplier introduced in order to enforce the symmetry of the stress tensor. Based on this formulation a new family of both two-and three-dimensional mixed methods is defined. Optimal error estimates, which are valid uniformly with respect to the Poisson ratio, are derived. Finally, a new postprocessing scheme for improving the displacement is introduced and analyzed.     

Energy-momentum conserving discretization of mixed shell elements for large deformation problems

In the present paper we consider structure-preserving integration methods in the context of mixed finite elements. The used low-order mixed finite elements typically exhibit improved coarse mesh accuracy. On the other hand energy-momentum (EM) consistent time-stepping schemes have been developed in the realm of nonlinear structural dynamics to enhance the numerical stability properties. EM schemes typically exhibit superior robustness and thus offer the possibility to use large time steps while still producing physically meaningful results. Accordingly, combining mixed finite element discretizations in space with EM consistent discretizations in time shows great promise for the design of numerical methods with superior coarse mesh accuracy in space and time. Starting with a general Hu-Washizu-type variational formulation we develop a second-order accurate structure-preserving integration scheme. The present approach is applicable to a large number of mixed finite element formulations. As sample application we deal with a specific mixed shell element. Numerical examples dealing with large deformations will show the improved coarse mesh accuracy in space and time of the advocated approach. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A mixed finite element method for a quasi‐Newtonian fluid flow

We propose a mixed formulation for quasi‐Newtonian fluid flow obeying the power law where the stress tensor is introduced as a new variable. Based on such a formulation, a mixed finite element is constructed and analyzed. This finite element method possesses local (i.e., at element level) conservation properties (conservation of the momentum and the mass) as in the finite volume methods. We give existence and uniqueness results for the continuous problem and its approximation and we prove error bounds. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2004.     

A finite shell element with well balanced approximation functions for piezoelectric coupling

This contribution is concerned with a piezoelectric shell formulation. The present shell element has four nodes and bilinear interpolation functions. The nodal degrees of freedom are displacements, rotations and the electric potential on top and bottom of the shell. A 3D–material law is incorporated. In case of bending dominated problems incompatible approximation functions of the electrical and mechanical fields cause incorrect results. This effect occurs in standard element formulations, where the mechanical and electrical degrees of freedom are approximated with lowest order interpolation functions. In order to overcome this problem a mixed multi–field variational approach is introduced. It allows for approximations of the electric field and the strains independent of the bilinear interpolation functions. A quadratic approach for the shear strains and the electric field is proposed through the shell thickness. This leads to well balanced approximation functions regarding coupling of electrical and mechanical fields. A numerical example illustrates the more precise results in contrast to standard elements. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Stabilized Nonconforming Mixed Finite Element Method for Linear Elasticity on Rectangular or Cubic Meshes

Based on the primal mixed variational formulation, a stabilized nonconforming mixed finite element method is proposed for the linear elasticity on rectangular and cubic meshes. Two kinds of penalty terms are introduced in the stabilized mixed formulation, which are the jump penalty term for the displacement and the divergence penalty term for the stress. We use the classical nonconforming rectangular and cubic elements for the displacement and the discontinuous piecewise polynomial space for the stress, where the discrete space for stress are carefully chosen to guarantee the well-posedness of discrete formulation. The stabilized mixed method is locking-free. The optimal convergence order is derived in the $L^2$-norm for stress and in the broken $H^1$-norm and $L^2$-norm for displacement. A numerical test is carried out to verify the optimal convergence of the stabilized method.     

Structure-preserving space-time discretization of nonlinear structural dynamics based on a mixed variational formulation

The present work deals with the design of structure-preserving numerical methods in the field of nonlinear elastodynamics and structural dynamics. Structure-preserving schemes such as energy-momentum consistent (EMC) methods are known to exhibit superior numerical stability and robustness. Most of the previously developed schemes are relying on a displacement-based variational formulation of the underlying mechanical model. In contrast to that we present a mixed variational framework for the systematic design of EMC schemes. The newly proposed mixed approach accomodates high-performance mixed finite elements such as the shell element due to Wagner & Gruttmann [1] and the brick element due to Kasper & Taylor [2]. Accordingly, the proposed approach makes possible the structure-preserving extension to the dynamic regime of those high-performance elements. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

用于平板和圆柱壳分析的势能—杂交／混合分离位移有限元格式

本文基于势能～杂交/混合有限元格式,导出了具有分离转动变量的4节点四边形Reissner-Mindlin板元MP4、MP4a和圆柱壳元MCS4.所有这些单元都显示了良好的收敛性;不含有多余机动模式;当趋于薄板/壳极限时,不存在“自锁”现象.本文还指明了在C~0和C~1连续的单元列式中使用的修正泛函,存在相互联系.本文的方法可导出Prathap的一致场列式,也可导出RIT/SRIT的位移协调模型.     

二阶椭圆问题基于泡函数的简化的稳定化二阶混合有限元格式

本文研究二阶椭圆方程基于泡函数的稳定化的二阶混合有限元格式,通过消去泡函数导出一种自由度很少的简化的稳定化的二阶混合有限元格式, 误差分析表明消去泡函数的简化格式与带有泡函数的格式具有相同的精度而可以节省6N_p个自由度(其中N_p三角形剖分中的顶点数目).       

Stabilized dual-mixed method for the problem of linear elasticity with mixed boundary conditions

We extend the applicability of the augmented dual-mixed method introduced recently in Gatica (2007), Gatica et al. (2009) to the problem of linear elasticity with mixed boundary conditions. The method is based on the Hellinger–Reissner principle and the symmetry of the stress tensor is imposed in a weak sense. The Neumann boundary condition is prescribed in the finite element space. Then, suitable Galerkin least-squares type terms are added in order to obtain an augmented variational formulation which is coercive in the whole space. This allows to use any finite element subspaces to approximate the displacement, the Cauchy stress tensor and the rotation.     

Analysis of a bilinear finite element for shallow shells I: Approximation of inextensional deformations

We consider a bilinear reduced-strain finite element formulation for a shallow shell model of Reissner-Naghdi type. The formulation is closely related to the facet models used in engineering practice. We estimate the error of this scheme when approximating an inextensional displacement field. We make the strong assumptions that the domain and the finite element mesh are rectangular and that the boundary conditions are periodic and the mesh uniform in one of the coordinate directions. We prove then that for sufficiently smooth fields, the convergence rate in the energy norm is of optimal order uniformly with respect to the shell thickness. In case of elliptic shell geometry the error bound is furthermore quasioptimal, whereas in parabolic and hyperbolic geometries slightly enhanced smoothness is required, except for the degenerate cases where the characteristic lines are parallel with the mesh lines. The error bound is shown to be sharp.