A generalized probabilistic edge-based smoothed finite element method for elastostatic analysis of Reissner–Mindlin plates

Probabilistic analysis is becoming more important in mechanical science and real-world engineering applications. In this work, a novel generalized stochastic edge-based smoothed finite element method is proposed for Reissner–Mindlin plate problems. The edge-based smoothing technique is applied in the standard FEM to soften the over-stiff behavior of Reissner–Mindlin plate system, aiming to improve the accuracy of predictions for deterministic response. Then, the generalized nth order stochastic perturbation technique is incorporated with the edge-based S-FEM to formulate a generalized probabilistic ES-FEM framework (GP_ES-FEM). Based upon a general order Taylor expansion with random variables of input, it is able to determine higher order probabilistic moments and characteristics of the response of Reissner–Mindlin plates. The significant feature of the proposed approach is that it not only improves the numerical accuracy of deterministic output quantities with respect to a given random variable, but also overcomes the inherent drawbacks of conventional second-order perturbation approach, which is satisfactory only for small coefficients of variation of the stochastic input field. Two numerical examples for static analysis of Reissner–Mindlin plates are presented and verified by Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present method.     

An extended edge-based smoothed discrete shear gap method for free vibration analysis of cracked Reissner–Mindlin plate

An extended edge-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (XES-DSG3) is proposed for free vibration analysis of cracked Reissner–Mindlin plate by implementing the edge-based strain smoothing operation into the discrete shear gap-based extended finiteelement method (XFEM-DSG3). In present method, the strain smoothing operation is implemented into the bending strain gradient matrices, in which the enriched functions are included. Then, the derivatives of element shape functions and derivatives of crack-tip singular enriched functions are not required in the computation. The calculation of element matrices is performed over the smoothing domains which are associated with edges of elements. The transverse shear locking of Reissner–Mindlin plate can be avoided by using the integration of discrete shear gap (DSG) method. Several numerical examples are investigated to illustrate the accuracy of XES-DSG3 for the free vibration analysis of cracked Reissner–Mindlin plate. Moreover, numerical results show that the present method is insensitive to mesh distortion and it is more stable than the pervious XFEM-DSG3.     

A mimetic discretization of the Reissner–Mindlin plate bending problem

We present a mimetic approximation of the Reissner–Mindlin plate bending problem which uses deflections and rotations as discrete variables. The method applies to very general polygonal meshes, even with non matching or non convex elements. We prove linear convergence for the method uniformly in the plate thickness.     

Modelling of thin viscoelastic shell structures under Reissner–Mindlin kinematic assumption

In this paper, we study thin viscoelastic shell structures using a constitutive equation in hereditary integral form. An alternative mathematical formulations for several viscoelastic shell structures under the Reissner–Mindlin kinematical assumptions are obtained. The resulting equations are written as a Volterra equation of the second kind to allow further mathematical analysis. A locking-free finite element formulation, with selective reduced integration is used to approximate the equation. To perform numerical experiments we consider several situations suffering from locking in both cases dynamic and quasi-static. We show the good behavior of the model compared with other models from the literature.     

Reissner–Mindlin plate model with uncertain input data

A Reissner–Mindlin model of a plate resting on unilateral rigid piers and a unilateral elastic foundation is considered. Since the material coefficients of the orthotropic plate, stiffness of the foundation, and the lateral loading are uncertain, a method of the worst scenario (anti-optimization) is employed to find maximal values of some quantity of interest.The state problem is formulated in terms of a variational inequality with a monotone operator. Using mixed-interpolated finite elements, approximations are proposed for the state problem and for the worst scenario problem. The solvability of the problems and a convergence of approximations is proved.     

Stabilized finite element approximations for the Reissner–Mindlin plate

Based on the Helmholtz decomposition of the transverse shear strain, Brezzi and Fortin in [5] introduced a three-stage algorithm for approximating the Reissner–Mindlin plate model with clamped boundary conditions and established uniform error estimates in the plate thickness. The first- and third-stage involve approximating two simple Poisson equations and the second-stage approximating a perturbed Stokes equation. Instead of using the mixed finite element method which is subject to the inf–sup condition, we consider a stabilized finite element approximation to such perturbed Stokes equations. Optimal error estimates independent of thickness of the plate are obtained for such equations. Then error analysis is established for the whole system.     

Boundary stabilization of structural acoustic interactions with interface on a Reissner–Mindlin plate

Boundary stabilization of a structural acoustic model comprised of a wave and a Reissner–Mindlin plate is addressed. Both the components of the dynamics are subject to localized nonlinear boundary damping: the acoustic dissipative feedback is restricted to the flexible boundary and only a portion of the rigid wall; the plate is damped only on a segment of its edge.Derivation of stabilization/observability inequalities for a coupled system requires weighted energy multipliers dependent on the geometry of the domain, and special microlocal trace estimates for the Reissner–Mindlin plate. The behavior of the energy at infinity can be quantified by a solution to an explicitly constructed nonlinear ODE. The nonlinearities in the feedbacks may include sub- and superlinear growth at infinity, in which case the decay scheme presents a trade-off between the regularity of trajectories and attainable uniform dissipation rates of the finite energy.     

The Boussinesq–Mindlin problem for a non-homogeneous elastic halfspace

Boussinesq’s problem for the indentation of an isotropic, homogeneous elastic halfspace by a rigid circular punch constitutes a seminal problem in the theory of contact mechanics as does Mindlin’s problem for the action of a concentrated force at the interior of an isotropic, homogeneous elastic halfspace. The combined action of the surface indentation in the presence of the interior loading is referred to as the Boussinesq–Mindlin problem, which has important applications in the area of geomechanics. The Boussinesq–Mindlin problem, which represents a self-stressing loading configuration, serves as a useful model for interpreting the mechanics of indentation of geologic media for purposes of estimating their bulk elasticity properties. In this paper, the analysis of the problem is extended to include an exponential variation in the linear elastic shear modulus of the halfspace region.     

Bending of thick functionally graded plates resting on Winkler–Pasternak elastic foundations

The static response of simply supported functionally graded plates (FGP) subjected to a transverse uniform load (UL) or a sinusoidally distributed load (SL) and resting on an elastic foundation is examined by using a new hyperbolic displacement model. The present theory exactly satisfies the stress boundary conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate. No transverse shear correction factors are needed, because a correct representation of the transverse shear strain is given. The material properties of the plate are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of volume fractions of material constituents. The foundation is modeled as a two-parameter Pasternak-type foundation, or as a Winkler-type one if the second parameter is zero. The equilibrium equations of a functionally graded plate are given based on the hyperbolic shear deformation theory of plates presented. The effects of stiffness and gradient index of the foundation on the mechanical responses of the plates are discussed. It is established that the elastic foundations significantly affect the mechanical behavior of thick functionally graded plates. The numerical results presented in the paper can serve as benchmarks for future analyses of thick functionally graded plates on elastic foundations.     

The hp-MITC finite element method for the Reissner–Mindlin plate problem

The popular MITC finite elements used for the approximation of the Reissner–Mindlin plate are extended to the case where elements of non-uniform degree p distribution are used on locally refined meshes. Such an extension is of particular interest to the hp-version and hp-adaptive finite element methods. A priori error bounds are provided showing that the method is locking-free. The analysis is based on new approximation theoretic results for non-uniform Brezzi–Douglas–Fortin–Marini spaces, and extends the results obtained in the case of uniform order approximation on globally quasi-uniform meshes presented by Stenberg and Suri (SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 34 (1997) 544). Numerical examples illustrating the theoretical results and comparing the performance with alternative standard Galerkin approaches are presented for two new benchmark problems with known analytic solution, including the case where the shear stress exhibits a boundary layer. The new method is observed to be locking-free and able to provide exponential rates of convergence even in the presence of boundary layers.     

Strong stabilization of models incorporating the thermoelastic Reissner–Mindlin plate equations with second sound

In this article we are concerned with the strong stabilization of models for the Reissner–Mindlin plate equations with second sound, that is, models that include thermal effects described according to Cattaneo's law of heat conduction instead of Fourier's law in classical thermoelasticity. Two models will be considered which are distinct with respect to the property of compactness or non-compactness of the resolvent of the generator of the underlying semigroup. In accordance with the compactness or non-compactness of the resolvent operator, a different criterion for strong stability is implemented to achieve the strong stabilization of each model. In the compact resolvent case we avail ourselves of a result given by Benchimol [C.D. Benchimol, A note on weak stabilizability of contraction semigroups, SIAM J. Control Optim. 16 (1978), pp. 373–379] and in the non-compact case we resort to a stability criterion Tomilov [Y. Tomilov, A resolvent approach to stability of operator semigroups, J. Operator Theory 46 (2001), pp. 63–98].     

Global well-posedness and stability of semilinear Mindlin–Timoshenko system

We study long-term behavior of Reissner–Mindlin–Timoshenko (RMT) plate systems, focusing on the interplay between nonlinear viscous damping and source terms. The sources may represent restoring forces, but may also be focusing thus potentially amplifying the total energy which is the primary scenario of interest. This work complements [28] which established local well-posedness of this problem, global well-posedness when damping dominates the sources (in an appropriate sense) and a blow-up in the complementary scenario assuming negative “total” initial energy. The current paper develops the potential well theory for the RMT system: it proves global existence for potential well solutions without restricting the source exponents, derives explicit energy decay rates dependent on the order of the damping exponents, and verifies a blow-up result for positive total initial energy.     

A finite-element mechanical contact model based on Mindlin–Reissner shell theory for a three-dimensional human body and garment

Efficient numerical methods for describing a garment’s mechanical behavior during wear have been identified as the key technology for garment simulation. This paper presents a finite-element mechanical contact model based on Mindlin–Reissner shell theory for a three-dimensional human body and garment. In this model, the human body and the garment are meshed as basic contact cells, these contact cells between the human body and the garment are defined as the contact pair to describe the contact relationship, and the mathematical formulation of the finite-element model is defined to describe the strain–stress performance of the three-dimensional human body and garment system. By using the solution given by the computer code and the programs specifically developed, the calculations of the mechanics in the basic cells of the human body and the garment have been able to be carried out. The simulation results show that the model of rationality, a good simulation results and simulation efficiency.     

Wave propagation and band gaps in homogenized phononic plates — modelling by spectral decomposition

The paper deals with analysis of the elastic waves in the Reissner-Mindlin type of plates formed by strongly heterogeneous structures. The homogenized plate model involves frequency-dependent mass coefficients associated with the plate cross-section rotations and the plate deflections. Intervals of frequencies called band gaps exist for which these coefficients constituting a mass matrix can be negative, so that certain wave modes cannot propagate. A spectral decomposition based method is proposed which is suitable to compute the plate response for an external loading by periodic forces with frequencies in range of the band gaps. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Quasiharmonic longitudinal wave propagating in a Mindlin–Herrmann rod in a nonlinearly elastic environment

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics - We consider the modulation instability of quasiharmonic longitudinal waves propagating in a homogeneous rod immersed in a nonlinearly elastic medium. The...     

Free vibration and stability of tapered Euler–Bernoulli beams made of axially functionally graded materials

The free vibration and stability of axially functionally graded tapered Euler–Bernoulli beams are studied through solving the governing differential equations of motion. Observing the fact that the conventional differential transform method (DTM) does not necessarily converge to satisfactory results, a new approach based on DTM called differential transform element method (DTEM) is introduced which considerably improves the convergence rate of the method. In addition to DTEM, differential quadrature element method of lowest-order (DQEL) is used to solve the governing differential equation, as well. Carrying out several numerical examples, the competency of DQEL and DTEM in determination of free longitudinal and free transverse frequencies and critical buckling load of tapered Euler–Bernoulli beams made of axially functionally graded materials is verified.