Mixed time discontinuous space-time finite element method for convection diffusion equations

A mixed time discontinuous space-time finite element scheme for secondorder convection diffusion problems is constructed and analyzed. Order of the equation is lowered by the mixed finite element method. The low order equation is discretized with a space-time finite element method, continuous in space but discontinuous in time. Stability, existence, uniqueness and convergence of the approximate solutions are proved. Numerical results are presented to illustrate efficiency of the proposed method.     

SOLUTION OF THE CONNECTION PROBLEMS BETWEEN A FINITE HOLED PLATE AND A STIFFENER BY USING THE PARTITIONING CONCEPT OF THE GENERALIZED VARIATIONAL METHOD

In this paper a new finite element method is presented.in which complex functions arechosen to be the finite element model and the partitioning concept of the generalizedvariational method is utilized.The stress concentration factors for a finite holed platewelded by a stiffener are calculated and the analytical solutions in series form are obtained.From some computer trials it is demonstrated that the problem of displacementcompatibility and continuity of tractions between the holed plate and the stiffener issuccessfully analysed by using this method.Since only three elements need to beformulated.relatively less storage is required than the usual finite element methods.Furthermore,the accurary of solutions is improved and the computer time requirements areconsiderably reduced.Numerical results of stress concentration factors and stresses alongthe welded-line which may be referential to engineers are shown in tables.     

A streamline diffusion nonconforming finite element method for the time-dependent linearized Navier-Stokes equations

A nonconforming finite element method of finite difference streamline diffusion type is proposed to solve the time-dependent linearized Navier-Stokes equations. The backward Euler scheme is used for time discretization. Crouzeix-Raviart nonconforming finite element approximation, namely, nonconforming （P1）2 - P0 element, is used for the velocity and pressure fields with the streamline diffusion technique to cope with usual instabilities caused by the convection and time terms. Stability and error estimates are derived with suitable norms.     

Fractional four-step finite element method for analysis of thermally coupled fluid-solid interaction problems

An integrated fluid-thermal-structural analysis approach is presented. In this approach, the heat conduction in a solid is coupled with the heat convection in the viscous flow of the fluid resulting in the thermal stress in the solid. The fractional four-step finite element method and the streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) method are used to analyze the viscous thermal flow in the fluid. Analyses of the heat transfer and the thermal stress in the solid are performed by the Galerkin method. The second-order semiimplicit Crank-Nicolson scheme is used for the time integration. The resulting nonlinear equations are linearized to improve the computational efficiency. The integrated analysis method uses a three-node triangular element with equal-order interpolation functions for the fluid velocity components, the pressure, the temperature, and the solid displacements to simplify the overall finite element formulation. The main advantage of the present method is to consistently couple the heat transfer along the fluid-solid interface. Results of several tested problems show effiectiveness of the present finite element method, which provides insight into the integrated fluid-thermal-structural interaction phenomena.     

Pseudo-beam method for compressive buckling characteristics analysis of space inflatable load-carrying structures

This paper extends Le van＇s work to the case of nonlinear problem and the complicated configuration. The wrinkling stress distribution and the pressure effects are also included in our analysis. Pseudo-beam method is presented based on the inflatable beam theory to model the inflatable structures as a set of inflatable beam elements with a prestressed state. In this method, the discretized nonlinear equations are given based upon the virtual work principle with a 3-node Timoshenko＇s beam model. Finite element simulation is performed by using a 3-node BEAM189 element incorporating ANSYS nonlinear program. The pressure effect is equivalent included in our method by modifying beam element cross-section parameters related to pressure. A benchmark example, the bending case of an inflatable cantilever beam, is performed to verify the accuracy of our proposed method. The comparisons reveal that the numerical results obtained with our method are close to open published analytical and membrane finite element results. The method is then used to evaluate the whole buckling and the loadcarrying characteristics of an inflatable support frame subjected to a compression force. The wrinkling stress and region characteristics are also shown in the end. This method gives better convergence characteristics, and requires much less computation time. It is very effective to deal with the whole load-carrying ability analytical problems for large scale inflatable structures with complex configuration.     

FATIGUE GROWTH MODELING OF MIXED-MODE CRACK IN PLANE ELASTIC MEDIA

This paper presents an extension of a displacement discontinuity method with cracktip elements （a boundary element method） proposed by the author for fatigue crack growth analysis in plane elastic media under mixed-mode conditions. The boundary element method consists of the non-singular displacement discontinuity elements presented by Crouch and Starfield and the crack-tip displacement discontinuity elements due to the author. In the boundary element implementation the left or right crack-tip element is placed locally at the corresponding left or right crack tip on top of the non-singular displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundaries. Crack growth is simulated with an incremental crack extension analysis based on the maximum circumferential stress criterion. In the numerical simulation, for each increment of crack extension, remeshing of existing boundaries is not required because of an intrinsic feature of the numerical approach. Crack growth is modeled by adding new boundary elements on the incremental crack extension to the previous crack boundaries. At the same time, the element characteristics of some related elements are adjusted according to the manner in which the boundary element method is implemented. As an example, the fatigue growth process of cracks emanating from a circular hole in a plane elastic plate is simulated using the numerical simulation approach.     

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.     

Dynamic response of underground structures by time domain SBEM and SFEM

The dynamic interaction problems of three-dimensional linear elastic structures witharbitrary shaped section embedded in a homogeneous,isotropic and linear elastic half spaceunder dynamic disturbances are numerically solved.The numerical method employed is acombination of the time domain semi-analytical boundary element method(SBEM)usedfor the semi-infinite soil medium and the semi-analytical finite element method(SFEM)used for the three-dimensional structure.The two methods are combined throughequilibrium and compatibility conditions at the soil-structure interface.Displacements,velocities,accelerations and interaction forces at the interface between undergroundstructure and soil medium produced by the diffraction of wave by an underground structurefor every time step are obtained.In dynamic soil-structure interaction problems,it isadvantageous to combine the SBEM and the SFEM in an effort to produce an optimumnumerical hybrid scheme which is characterized by the main advantages of the two methods.The     

Cell size effects for vibration analysis and design of sandwich beams

In this work, sandwich beams are studied to reveal the underlying size effects of the periodic core cells for the first time within the framework of free vibration analysis of such an advanced lightweight structure. The energy equivalence method is formulated as a theoretical approach that takes into account the cell size effect. It is compared with the asymptotic homogenization method and direct finite element method systematically to show their consistence and applicability. The accuracy of free vibration responses predicted by the detailed finite element model is used as the standard of comparison. It is shown that the cell size is an important parameter characterizing the cellular core rigidities that influence vibration responses. The homogenization model agrees exactly with the asymptotic solution of the analytical expression of the beam model only whenever the cell size tends to be infinitely small.     

Adaptive finite element method for analysis of pollutant dispersion in shallow water

A finite element method for analysis of pollutant dispersion in shallow water is presented. The analysis is divided into two parts ： （ 1 ） computation of the velocity flow field and water surface elevation, and （2） computation of the pollutant concentration field from the dispersion model. The method was combined with an adaptive meshing technique to increase the solution accuracy, as well as to reduce the computational time and computer memory. The finite element formulation and the computer programs were validated by several examples that have known solutions. In addition, the capability of the combined method was demonstrated by analyzing pollutant dispersion in Chao Phraya River near the gulf of Thailand.     

The construction of large element in finite element method

In the usual finite element method, the order of the interpolation in an element is kept unchanged, and the accuracy is raised by subdividing the grid denser and denser. Alternatively, in the large element method, the grid is kept unchanged, and the terms of approximate series in the element are increased to raise the accuracy.In this paper, a method for constructing large elements is presented. When using this method, two sets of variables, one set defined inside the element, and the other defined on the boundary of the element, are adopted. Then, these two sets of variables are combined by the hybrid-penalty function method. This method can be applied to any elliptic equations in a domain with arbitrary shape and arbitrary complex boundary condition. It is proved with strict mathematical method in this paper, that in general cases, the accuracy of this method is much higher than that of the usual element and the large element method presented in [7]. Therefore, the degrees of freedom needed in this method are much fewer than those in the two methods if the same accuracy is preserved.     

谱元法和高阶时间分裂法求解方腔顶盖驱动流

详细推导了谱元方法的具体计算公式和时间分裂法的具体计算过程 ;对一般的时间分裂法进行了改进 ,即对非线性步分别用 3阶 Adams-Bashforth方法和 4阶显式 Runge-Kutta法 ,粘性步采用 3阶隐式 Adams-Moulton形式 ,提高了时间方向的离散精度 ,同时还改进了压力边界条件 ,采用 3阶的压力边界条件 ;利用改进的时间分裂方法分解不可压缩 Navier-Stokes方程 ,并结合谱元法计算了移动顶盖方腔驱动流 ,提高了方法可以计算的 Re数 ,缩短了达到收敛的时间 ,并将结果与基准解进行比较 ;分析了移动顶盖方腔驱动流中 Re数对流场分布的影响。     

基于单元子分法的结构多尺度边界单元法

建立在基于单元子分法的一种有效自适应格式以及多区域边界元三步求解技术基础上提出了一种计算结构多尺度问题的多区域边界元法。首先,通过高斯积分误差分析公式确定边界单元在满足精度要求下所需要的高斯点数,当所需高斯点数超过规定数目时该单元就被自动划分成一定数量的子单元,从而消除结构多尺度所引起的近奇异性。在单元子分技术的基础上采用多区域边界元三步求解技术来处理材料非均质问题:第一步消除各子域的内部未知量,第二步消除各子域独自拥有的边界未知量,第三步根据位移相容性条件和面力平衡条件建立系统方程组并求解公共界面节点位移以及每个子域的其他未知量。数值算例结果表明本方法可以用较少的计算时间得到满意的结果,是处理结构多尺度问题的一种有效方法。     

Some improvements on free surface simulation by the particle finite element method

The Lagrangian method has become increasingly popular in numerical simulation of free surface problems. In this paper, after a brief review of a recent Lagrangian method, namely the particle finite element method, some issues are discussed and some improvements are made. The least‐square finite element method is adopted to simplify the solving of the Navier–Stokes equations. An adaptive time method is derived to obtain suitable time steps. A mass correction procedure is imported to improve the mass conservation in long time calculations and time discretization scheme is adopted to decrease the pressure oscillations during the calculations. Finally, the method is used to simulate a series of examples and the results are compared with the commercial FLOW3D code. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduced-order finite element method based on POD for fractional Tricomi-type equation

The reduced-order finite element method (FEM) based on a proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) theory is applied to the time fractional Tricomi-type equation. The present method is an improvement on the general FEM. It can significantly save memory space and effectively relieve the computing load due to its reconstruction of POD basis functions. Furthermore, the reduced-order finite element (FE) scheme is shown to be unconditionally stable, and error estimation is derived in detail. Two numerical examples are presented to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the method for time fractional differential equations (FDEs).     

An iterative parallel algorithm of finite element method

In this paper, a parallel algorithm with iterative form for solving finite element equation is presented. Based on the iterative solution of linear algebra equations, the parallel computational steps are introduced in this method. Also by using the weighted residual method and choosing the appropriate weighting functions, the finite element basic form of parallel algorithm is deduced. The program of this algorithm has been realized on the ELXSI-6400 parallel computer of Xi'an Jiaotong University. The computational results show the operational speed will be raised and the CPU time will be cut down effectively. So this method is one kind of effective parallel algorithm for solving the finite element equations of large-scale structures.     

分区界面元-有限元-无限元混合模型

利用界面元良好的相容性,引入过渡界面元的概念．实现了界面元与有限元二种数值计算方法的结合,并提出了一种界面元-有限元-无限元混合模型。这种混合模型既可以发挥界面元计算精度高、适用于不连续变形等优点．又能够充分利用有限元的计算效率和无限元方便处理无限域介质的特点,较为和谐地解决了计算精度和计算效率的矛盾。数值算例表明,本文所建立的混合模型的有效性,揭示此类混合模型具有广阔的工程应用前景。     

Exact finite element method

In this paper,a new method,exact element method for constructing finite element,ispresented.It can be applied to solve nonpositive definite or positive definite partialdifferential equation with arbitrary variable coefficient under arbitrary boundarycondition.Its convergence is proved and its united formula for solving partial differentialequation is given.By the present method,a noncompatible element can be obtained and thecompatibility conditions between elements can be treated very easily.Comparing the exactelement method with the general finite element method with the same degrees of freedom,the high convergence rate of the high order derivatives of solution can be obtained.Threenumerical examples are given at the end of this paper,which indicate all results canconverge to exact solution and have higher numerical precision.     

A study of finite element discretization technique in time domain

This paper presents a real time finite element method (TFEM) which unifies discretization techniques both in space domain and time domain and leads to some new possibilities of direct integral schemes. It is proved that some conventional schemes such as central difference and Newmark scheme are only special cases of linear element. The problem of the matching between the division of space mesh and the choice of time step length is also discussed.