The wave and vibratory power transmission in a finite L-shaped Mindlin plate with two simply supported opposite edges

In this paper,wave and vibratory power transmission in a finite L-shaped Mindlin plate with two simply supported opposite edges are investigated using the wave approach.The dynamic responses,active and reactive power flow in the finite plate are calculated by the Mindlin plate theory (MPT) and classic plate theory (CPT).To satisfy the boundary conditions and continuous conditions at the coupled junction of the finite L-shaped plate,the near-field and far-field waves are entirely contained in the wave approach.The in-plane longitudinal and shear waves are also considered.The results indicate that the vibratory power flow based on the MPT is different from that based on the CPT not only at high frequencies but also at low and medium frequencies.The influence of the plate thickness on the vibrational power flow is investigated.From the results it is seen that the shear and rotary inertia correction of the MPT can influence the active and reactive power at the junction of the L-shaped plate not only at high frequencies but also at low and medium frequencies.Furthermore,the effects of structural damping on the active and reactive power flow at the junction are also analyzed.     

Study on fluid-structure interaction in liquid oxygen feeding pipe systems using finite volume method

The fluid-structure interaction may occur in space launch vehicles,which would lead to bad performance of vehicles,damage equipments on vehicles,or even affect astronauts’ health.In this paper,analysis on dynamic behavior of liquid oxygen (LOX) feeding pipe system in a large scale launch vehicle is performed,with the effect of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) taken into consideration.The pipe system is simplified as a planar FSI model with Poisson coupling and junction coupling.Numerical tests on pipes between the tank and the pump are solved by the finite volume method.Results show that restrictions weaken the interaction between axial and lateral vibrations.The reasonable results regarding frequencies and modes indicate that the FSI affects substantially the dynamic analysis,and thus highlight the usefulness of the proposed model.This study would provide a reference to the pipe test,as well as facilitate further studies on oscillation suppression.     

On the limitations of linear beams for the problems of moving mass-beam interaction using a meshfree method

This paper deals with the capabilities of linear and nonlinear beam theories in predicting the dynamic response of an elastically supported thin beam traversed by a moving mass. To this end, the discrete equations of motion are developed based on Lagrange’s equations via reproducing kernel particle method (RKPM). For a particular case of a simply supported beam, Galerkin method is also employed to verify the results obtained by RKPM, and a reasonably good agreement is achieved. Variations of the maximum dynamic deflection and bending moment associated with the linear and nonlinear beam theories are investigated in terms of moving mass weight and velocity for various beam boundary conditions. It is demonstrated that for majority of the moving mass velocities, the differences between the results of linear and nonlinear analyses become remarkable as the moving mass weight increases, particularly for high levels of moving mass velocity. Except for the cantilever beam, the nonlinear beam theory predicts higher possibility of moving mass separation from the base beam compared to the linear one. Furthermore, the accuracy levels of the linear beam theory are determined for thin beams under large deflections and small rotations as a function of moving mass weight and velocity in various boundary conditions.     

Finite element implementation of boundary conditions for the pressure Poisson equation of incompressible flow

In this paper we address the problem of the implementation of boundary conditions for the derived pressure Poisson equation of incompressible flow. It is shown that the direct Galerkin finite element formulation of the pressure Poisson equation automatically satisfies the inhomogeneous Neumann boundary conditions, thus avoiding the difficulty in specifying boundary conditions for pressure. This ensures that only physically meaningful pressure boundary conditions consistent with the Navier-Stokes equations are imposed. Since second derivatives appear in this formulation, the conforming finite element method requires C¹ continuity. However, for many problems of practical interest (i.e. high Reynolds numbers) the second derivatives need not be included, thus allowing the use of more conventional C⁰ elements. Numerical results using this approach for a wall-driven contained flow within a square cavity verify the validity of the approach. Although the results were obtained for a two-dimensional problem using the p-version of the finite element method, the approach presented here is general and remains valid for the conventional h-version as well as three-dimensional problems.     

Application of the Dorodnitsyn finite element method to swirling boundary layer flow

The Dorodnitsyn finite element method for turbulent boundary layer flow with surface mass transfer is extended to include axisymmetric swirling internal boundary layer flow. Turbulence effects are represented by the two-layer eddy viscosity model of Cebeci and Smith¹ with extensions to allow for the effect of swirl. The method is applied to duct entry flow and a 10 degree included-angle conical diffuser, and produces results in close agreement with experimental measurements with only 11 grid points across the boundary layer. The introduction of swirl (w_e/u_e = 0.4) is found to have little effect on the axial skin friction in either a slightly favourable or adverse pressure gradient, but does cause an increase in the displacement area for an adverse pressure gradient. Surface mass transfer (blowing or suction) causes a substantial reduction (blowing) in axial skin friction and an increase in the displacement area. Both suction and the adverse pressure gradient have little influence on the circumferential velocity and shear stress components. Consequently in an adverse pressure gradient the flow direction adjacent to the wall is expected to approach the circumferential direction at some downstream location.     

Finite element analysis of 2D SMA beam bending

A thermomechanical model of a shape memory alloy beam bending under tip force loading is implemented in finite element codes.The constitutive model is a one dimensional model which is based on free energy and motivated by statistical thermodynamics.The particular focus of this paper is on the aspects of finite element modeling and simulation of the inhomogeneous beam bending problem.This paper extends previous work which is based on the small deformation Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and by treating an SMA beam as consisting of multi-layers in a twodimensional model.The flux terms are involved in the heat transfer equation.The simulations can represent both shape memory effect and super-elastic behavior.Different thermal boundary condition effect and load rate effect can also be captured.     

C 1 natural element method for strain gradient linear elasticity and its application to microstructures

C 1 natural element method (C 1 NEM) is applied to strain gradient linear elasticity, and size effects on microstructures are analyzed. The shape functions in C 1 NEM are built upon the natural neighbor interpolation (NNI), with interpolation realized to nodal function and nodal gradient values, so that the essential boundary conditions (EBCs) can be imposed directly in a Galerkin scheme for partial differential equations (PDEs). In the present paper, C 1 NEM for strain gradient linear elasticity is constructed, and several typical examples which have analytical solutions are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the constructed method. In its application to microstructures, the size effects of bending stiffness and stress concentration factor (SCF) are studied for microspeciem and microgripper, respectively. It is observed that the size effects become rather strong when the width of spring for microgripper, the radius of circular perforation and the long axis of elliptical perforation for microspeciem come close to the material characteristic length scales. For the U-shaped notch, the size effects decline obviously with increasing notch radius, and decline mildly with increasing length of notch.     

A hybrid vertex-centered finite volume/element method for viscous incompressible flows on non-staggered unstructured meshes

This paper proposes a hybrid vertex-centered finite volume/finite element method for solution of the two dimensional (2D) incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on unstructured grids.An incremental pressure fractional step method is adopted to handle the velocity-pressure coupling.The velocity and the pressure are collocated at the node of the vertex-centered control volume which is formed by joining the centroid of cells sharing the common vertex.For the temporal integration of the momentum equations,an implicit second-order scheme is utilized to enhance the computational stability and eliminate the time step limit due to the diffusion term.The momentum equations are discretized by the vertex-centered finite volume method (FVM) and the pressure Poisson equation is solved by the Galerkin finite element method (FEM).The momentum interpolation is used to damp out the spurious pressure wiggles.The test case with analytical solutions demonstrates second-order accuracy of the current hybrid scheme in time and space for both velocity and pressure.The classic test cases,the lid-driven cavity flow,the skew cavity flow and the backward-facing step flow,show that numerical results are in good agreement with the published benchmark solutions.     

Rhythmic precipitate patterns and fractal structure

Liesegang patterns of parallel precipitate bands are obtained when solutions containing co-precipitate ions interdiffuse in a 1D gel matrix.The sparingly soluble salt formed,displays a beautiful stratification of discs of precipitate perpendicular to the 1D tube axis.The Liesegang structures are analyzed from the viewpoint of their fractal nature.Geometric Liesegang patterns are constructed in conformity with the well-known empirical laws such as the time,band spacing and band width laws.The dependence of the band spacing on the initial concentrations of diffusing(outer)and immobile(inner)electrolytes(A0 and B0,respectively)is taken to follow the Matalon-Packter law.Both mathematical fractal dimensions and box-count dimensions are calculated.The fractal dimension is found to increase with increasing A0 and decreasing B0.We also analyze mosaic patterns with random distribution of crystallites,grown under different conditions than the classical Liesegang gel method,and report on their fractal properties.Finally,complex Liesegang patterns wherein the bands are grouped in multiplets are studied,and it is shown that the fractal nature increases with the multiplicity.     

A Dorodnitsyn finite element formulation for laminar boundary layer flow

The Dorodnitsyn boundary later formulation is given a finite element interpretation and found to generate very accurate and economical solutions when combined with an implicit, non-iterative marching scheme in the downstream direction. The algorithm is of order (Δ²u, Δx) whether linear or quadratic elements are used across the boundary layer. Solutions are compared with a Dorodnitsyn spectral formulation and a conventional finite difference formulation for three Falkner-Skan pressure gradient cases and the flow over a circular cylinder. With quadratic elements the Dorodnitsyn finite element formulation is approximately five times more efficient than the conventional finite difference formulation.     

A new finite element method for strain gradient theories and applications to fracture analyses

A new compatible finite element method for strain gradient theories is presented. In the new finite element method, pure displacement derivatives are taken as the fundamental variables. The new numerical method is successfully used to analyze the simple strain gradient problems – the fundamental fracture problems. Through comparing the numerical solutions with the existed exact solutions, the effectiveness of the new finite element method is tested and confirmed. Additionally, an application of the Zienkiewicz–Taylor C1 finite element method to the strain gradient problem is discussed. By using the new finite element method, plane-strain mode I and mode II crack tip fields are calculated based on a constitutive law which is a simple generalization of the conventional J₂ deformation plasticity theory to include strain gradient effects. Three new constitutive parameters enter to characterize the scale over which strain gradient effects become important. During the analysis the general compressible version of Fleck–Hutchinson strain gradient plasticity is adopted. Crack tip solutions, the traction distributions along the plane ahead of the crack tip are calculated. The solutions display the considerable elevation of traction within the zone near the crack tip.     

A formal finite element approach for open boundaries in transport and diffusion ground-water problems

In the application of the finite element method to diffusion and convection-dispersion equations over a ground-water domain, the Galerkin technique was used to incorporate Neumann (or second-type) and Cauchy (or third-type) boundary conditions. While mass movement through open boundaries is a priori unknown, these boundaries are usually treated as a zero Neumann condition at some far distance from the domain of interest. Nevertheless, cheaper and better solutions can be obtained if these unknown conditions are adequately incorporated in the weak formulation and in the transient solution schemes (open boundary condition). Theoretical and numerical proofs are given of the equivalences between this approach and a ‘well-posed’ problem in a semi-infinite domain with a zero Neumann condition at a boundary placed at infinity. Transport and diffusion equations were applied in one dimension to show the numerical performances and limitations of this procedure for some linear and non-linear problems. No a priori limitations are foreseen in order to find similar solutions in two or three dimensions. Thus the spatial discretization in the proximity of open boundaries could be drastically reduced to the domain of interest.     

An investigation of an Emden-Fowler equation from thin film flow

A third-order ordinary differential equation (ODE) for thin film flow with both Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions is transformed into a second-order nonlinear ODE with Dirichlet boundary conditions.Numerical solutions of the nonlinear second-order ODE are investigated using finite difference schemes.A finite difference formulation to an Emden-Fowler representation of the second-order nonlinear ODE is shown to converge faster than a finite difference formulation of the standard form of the second-order nonlinear ODE.Both finite difference schemes satisfy the von Neumann stability criteria.When mapping the numerical solution of the second-order ODE back to the variables of the original third-order ODE we recover the position of the contact line.A nonlinear relationship between the position of the contact line and physical parameters is obtained.     

Construction of n-sided polygonal spline element using area coordinates and B-net method

In general, triangular and quadrilateral elements are commonly applied in two-dimensional finite element methods. If they are used to compute polycrystalline materials, the cost of computation can be quite significant. Polygonal elements can do well in simulation of the materials behavior and provide greater flexibility for the meshing of complex geometries. Hence, the study on the polygonal element is a very useful and necessary part in the finite element method. In this paper, an n-sided polygonal element based on quadratic spline interpolant, denoted by PS2 element, is presented using the triangular area coordinates and the B-net method. The PS2 element is conforming and can exactly model the quadratic field. It is valid for both convex and non-convex polygonal element, and insensitive to mesh distortions. In addition, no mapping or coordinate transformation is required and thus no Jacobian matrix and its inverse are evaluated. Some appropriate examples are employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed element.     

Some explicit triangular finite element schemes for the Euler equations

Several explicit schemes are presented for triangular P₀ and P₁ finite elements. A first-order accurate upwind P₀ scheme is compared to a FLIC type method. A second-order accurate Richtmyer scheme is constructed. Applications are given for the Euler system of conservation laws in the 2-dimensional case.     

Dynamic stiffness method for free vibration of an axially moving beam with generalized boundary conditions

Axially moving beams are often discussed with several classic boundary conditions, such as simply-supported ends, fixed ends, and free ends. Here, axially moving beams with generalized boundary conditions are discussed for the first time. The beam is supported by torsional springs and vertical springs at both ends. By modifying the stiffness of the springs, generalized boundaries can replace those classical boundaries.Dynamic stiffness matrices are, respectively, established for axially moving Timoshenko beams and Euler-Bernoulli(EB) beams with generalized boundaries. In order to verify the applicability of the EB model, the natural frequencies of the axially moving Timoshenko beam and EB beam are compared. Furthermore, the effects of constrained spring stiffness on the vibration frequencies of the axially moving beam are studied. Interestingly, it can be found that the critical speed of the axially moving beam does not change with the vertical spring stiffness. In addition, both the moving speed and elastic boundaries make the Timoshenko beam theory more needed. The validity of the dynamic stiffness method is demonstrated by using numerical simulation.     

On the plastic bifurcation and post-bifurcation of axially compressed beams

The paper presents two new results in the domain of the elastoplastic buckling and post-buckling of beams under axial compression. (i) First, the tangent modulus critical load, the buckling mode and the initial slope of the bifurcated branch are given for a Timoshenko beam (with the transverse shear effects). The result is derived from the 3D J₂ flow plastic bifurcation theory with the von Mises yield criterion and a linear isotropic hardening. (ii) Second, use is made of a specific method in order to provide the asymptotic expansion of the post-critical branch for a Euler-Bernoulli beam, exhibiting one new non-linear fractional term. All the analytical results are validated by finite element computations.     

Least-squares finite element methods for compressible Euler equations

A method based on backward finite differencing in time and a least-squares finite element scheme for first-order systems of partial differential equations in space is applied to the Euler equations for gas dynamics. The scheme minimizes the L²-norm of the residual within each time step. The method naturally generates numerical dissipation proportional to the time step size. An implicit method employing linear elements has been implemented and proves robust. For high-order elements, computed solutions based on the L²-method may have oscillations for calculations at similar time step sizes. To overcome this difficulty, a scheme which minimizes the weighted H¹-norm of the residual is proposed and leads to a successful scheme with high-degree elements. Finally, a conservative least-squares finite element method is also developed. Numerical results for two-dimensional problems are given to demonstrate the shock resolution of the methods and compare different approaches.     

A note on the stability and accuracy of Cn finite elements in steady diffusion-convection problems

The paper is concerned with stability and accuracy of an nth order Lagrangian family of finite element steady-state solutions of the diffusion-convection equation, and furthermore is concerned with the stability and the accuracy of on mth kind Hermitian family of finite element solutions. We discuss the stability of the numerical solution based on the fact that the characteristic finite element solution can be expressed approximately as a rational function of cell Peclet number Pe_c ( = uh/k). Moreover, it is shown that by eliminating derivatives and by using the interpolation method over elements a stable solution is obtained over the domain independent of Pe_c for P^1,3, and for P^2,5 the stable solution is obtained for Pe_c less than 44.4.     

A homogenization theory of strain gradient single crystal plasticity and its finite element discretization

In this study, a homogenization theory based on the Gurtin strain gradient formulation and its finite element discretization are developed for investigating the size effects on macroscopic responses of periodic materials. To derive the homogenization equations consisting of the relation of macroscopic stress, the weak form of stress balance, and the weak form of microforce balance, the Y-periodicity is used as additional, as well as standard, boundary conditions at the boundary of a unit cell. Then, by applying a tangent modulus method, a set of finite element equations is obtained from the homogenization equations. The computational stability and efficiency of this finite element discretization are verified by analyzing a model composite. Furthermore, a model polycrystal is analyzed for investigating the grain size dependence of polycrystal plasticity. In this analysis, the micro-clamped, micro-free, and defect-free conditions are considered as the additional boundary conditions at grain boundaries, and their effects are discussed.