Nonlinear analysis of structural elements under unilateral contact constraints by a Ritz type approach

A nonlinear modal solution methodology capable of solving equilibrium and stability problems of uni-dimensional structural elements (beams, columns and arches) with unilateral contact constraints is presented in this work. The contact constraints are imposed by an elastic foundation of the Winkler type, where special attention is given to the case in which the foundation reacts in compression only, characterizing the contact as unilateral. A Ritz type approach with moveable boundaries, where the coordinates defining the limits of the contact regions are considered as additional variables of the problem, is proposed to solve this class of unilateral contact problems. The methodology is illustrated by particular problems involving beams, beam-columns and arches, and the results are compared with available results obtained by finite element and mathematical programming techniques. It is concluded that the Ritz type approach proposed is particularly suited for the analysis of structural problems where the number, but not the length, of the contact regions between the bodies are known a priori. Therefore, it can substitute in these cases finite element applications and be used as a benchmark for more general and complex formulations as well.     

Boundary element simulation of surface waves on a deformed half-space

Homogeneous and two-layer half-spaces consisting of an anisotropic elastic, isotropic viscoelastic, or poroelastic material are considered. The Kelvin–Voigt model and the model with the Abel kernel are used as models of the viscoelastic material; the poroelastic material is studied within the framework of the model of the compressible Biot material. The case where the half-space contains a cavity is also considered. Propagation of surface waves is studied by the boundary element method. The numerical solution involves the method of collocations for a regularized boundary integral equation.     

Boundary element analysis of interaction between an elastic rectangular inclusion and a crack

The interaction between an elastic rectangular inclusion and a kinked crack inan infinite elastic body was considered by using boundary element method. The new complexboundary integral equations were derived. By introducing a complex unknown function H(t)related to the interface displacement density and traction and applying integration by parts,the traction continuous condition was satisfied automatically. Only one complex boundaryintegral equation was obtained on interface and involves only singularity of order l/ r. Toverify the validity and effectiveness of the present boundary element method, some typicalexamples were calculated. The obtained results show that the crack stress intensity factorsdecrease as the shear modulus of inclusion increases. Thus, the crack propagation is easiernear a softer inclusion and the harder inclusion is helpful for crack arrest.     

A method for the analysis of plates on a two-parameter foundation

In this study, an iterative method is developed in order to analyze the plates on a two-parameter elastic foundation, based on the study by Vallabhan et al. (1991), where the material properties of the soil are used in order to compute the coefficients of subgrade reactions, for the layered soil medium. In the analysis, the finite element method is used, both plate and surrounding soil area divided into finite elements. The plate finite element is considered by including the effects of subgrade reactions. By means of the method suggested herein, it is possible to examine the interaction between the separate plates close to each other and to assume the plate of arbitrary shape.     

一种计算复合材料等效弹性性能的有限元方法

在最小二乘意义下提出了一种计算复合材料等效弹性性能的有限元方法.这种方法由于考虑了等效弹性张量各分量之间的耦合关系,所求得的等效弹性常数比传统方法更可靠,可适用于求解含任意形状的夹杂和夹杂物问题.通过算例计算了在不同弹性模量对比度下两相复合材料的等效弹性性能,并与相关的理论及数值结果进行了比较,结果表明,利用该方法计算含夹杂复合材料等效弹性常数是可行的.     

Development of plasticity and damage in vibrating structural elements performing guided rigid-body motions

Summary  A numerical algorithm for studying the development of plastic and damaged zones in a vibrating structural element with a large, guided rigid-body motion is presented. Beam-type elements vibrating in the small-strain regime are considered. A machine element performing rotatory motions, similar to an element of a slider-crank mechanism, is treated as a benchmark problem. Microstructural changes in the deforming material are described by the mesolevel variables of plastic strain and damage, which are consistently included into a macroscopic analysis of the overall beam motion. The method is based on an eigenstrain formulation, considering plastic strain and damage to contribute to an eigenstrain loading of a linear elastic background structure. Rigid-body coordinates are incorporated into this beam-type structural formulation, and an implicit numerical scheme is presented for iterative computation of the eigenstrains from the mesolevel constitutive behavior. Owing to the eigenstrain formulation, any of the existing constitutive models with internal variables could in principle be implemented. Linear elastic/perfectly plastic behavior is exemplarily treated in a numerical study, where plastic strain is connected to the Kachanov damage parameter by a simple damage law. Inelastic effects like plastic shakedown and damage-induced low-cycle rupture are shown to occur in the examplary problems. Received 1 September 1999; accepted for publication 9 March 2000     

A coupling cross-section finite element model for torsion analysis of prismatic bars

A general finite element model has been developed for the analysis of prismatic bars subject to torsional loading by modelling only a small slice of the bar. Exact analytical coupling deformation relationships between the artificial cross-sections, which are independent of the position of axis of rotation, have been formulated. Three examples from the range of analyses that have been evaluated have been selected to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the method. Analyses for an orthotropic elastic square cross-section bar, an elastic–plastic circular cross-section shaft containing a radial crack, and geometrically nonlinear deformation of a thin-walled I-section beam are presented and compared with previous results, where available.     

Interaction of microcracks with a macrocrack yielded in a narrow strip

Plastic zone growth of collinear cracks has had a longstanding interest in ductile fracture. This work further considers yield zone growth in an isotropic, homogeneous elastic–perfectly plastic infinite plate containing a macrocrack with several neighboring microcracks. Normal loading is considered at distances far away from the cracks. The strip yield is adopted where the plastic zone is assumed to be confined to two narrow strips extending from the ends of a finite length crack while the microcracks are assumed to be elastic. The plastic zone length and crack opening displacement are found from asymptotic solution and compared with finite element solution.     

Parametric study of the distribution of the tensile stresses in pavilion structures constituted by four sectors of barrel shells

A semi-analytical approach is followed in order to obtain an approximate solution for an analytical model describing the static behaviour of pavilion shells. With the aim to parametrically investigate the distribution of the linear elastic tensile stresses, a linear elastic isotropic behaviour of the material is considered. Inside the pavilion shell, a family of arches and a family of straight beams can be recognized. This assumption justifies the separation of the variables which is at the basis of the proposed semi-analytical approach. The sensitivity of the behaviour of the shells to the values of the mechanical and geometrical parameters characterizing the system is investigated. Comparisons with results obtained by finite element models are performed to confirm both the validity of the semi-analytical approach and the provided results. Since only a linear elastic isotropic material has been taken into account, the results do not claim to describe the behaviour of masonry pavilion vaults.     

Green's function for incremental nonlinear elasticity: shear bands and boundary integral formulation

An elastic, incompressible, infinite body is considered subject to plane and homogeneous deformation. At a certain value of the loading, when the material is still in the elliptic range, an incremental concentrated line load is considered acting at an arbitrary location in the body and extending orthogonally to the plane of deformation. This plane strain problem is solved, so that a Green's function for incremental, nonlinear elastic deformation is obtained. This is used in two different ways: to quantify the decay rate of self-equilibrated loads in a homogeneously stretched elastic solid; and to give a boundary element formulation for incremental deformations superimposed upon a given homogeneous strain. The former result provides a perturbative approach to shear bands, which are shown to develop in the elliptic range, induced by self-equilibrated perturbations. The latter result lays the foundations for a rigorous approach to boundary element techniques in finite strain elasticity.     

Effective elastic shear stiffness of a periodic fibrous composite with non-uniform imperfect contact between the matrix and the fibers

In this contribution, effective elastic moduli are obtained by means of the asymptotic homogenization method, for oblique two-phase fibrous periodic composites with non-uniform imperfect contact conditions at the interface. This work is an extension of previous reported results, where only the perfect contact for elastic or piezoelectric composites under imperfect spring model was considered. The constituents of the composites exhibit transversely isotropic properties. A doubly periodic parallelogram array of cylindrical inclusions under longitudinal shear is considered. The behavior of the shear elastic coefficient for different geometry arrays related to the angle of the cell is studied. As validation of the present method, some numerical examples and comparisons with theoretical results verified that the present model is efficient for the analysis of composites with presence of imperfect interface and parallelogram cell. The effect of the non uniform imperfection on the shear effective property is observed. The present method can provide benchmark results for other numerical and approximate methods.     

Using co-rotational method for cracked frame analysis

A cracked element is formulated using the two-filed Hellinger–Reissner functional. Due to utilization of the linear elastic fracture mechanics, only geometrical nonlinearities can be considered for the cracked element. A clear step-by-step algorithm for the element state determination is also presented. The element flexibility matrix is derived in a basic coordinate system. Co-rotational approach is used to transform the element stiffness matrix and the resisting force vector from the basic system to the global one. The suggested element is applicable for static and dynamic analysis, as well as, the stress intensity factor calculation, and also inverse crack detection. Various numerical problems verify accuracy of the proposed element for linear and nonlinear structural analysis.     

Numerical analysis of effective elastic properties of geomaterials containing voids using 3D random fields and finite elements

The purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of porosity and void size on effective elastic geotechnical engineering properties with a 3D model of random fields and finite element. The random field theory is used to generate models of geomaterials containing spatially random voids with controlled porosity and void size. A “tied freedom” analysis is developed to evaluate the effective Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio in an ideal block material of finite elements. To deliver a mean and standard deviation of the elastic parameters, this approach uses Monte-Carlo simulations and finite elements, where each simulation leads to an effective value of the property under investigation. The results are extended to investigate an influence of representative volume element (RVE). A comparison of the effective elastic stiffness of 2D and 3D models is also discussed.     

Pull-in analysis of electrically actuated viscoelastic microbeams based on a modified couple stress theory

A new beam model is developed for the viscoelastic microbeam based on a modified couple stress model which contains only one material length scale parameter. The governing equations of equilibrium together with initial conditions and boundary conditions are obtained by a combination of the basic equations of modified couple stress theory and Hamilton’s principle. This new beam model is then used for an electrically actuated microbeam-based MEMS structure. The dynamic and quasi-static governing equations of an electrically actuated viscoelastic microbeam are firstly given where the axial force created by the midplane stretching effect is also considered. Galerkin method is used to solve above equation and this method is also validated by the finite element method (FEM) when our model is reduced into an elastic case. The numerical results show that the instantaneous pull-in voltage, durable pull-in voltage and pull-in delay time predicted by this newly developed model is larger (longer) than that predicted by the classical beam model. A comparison between the quasi-static model results and the dynamic model results is also given.     

A singular element for calculating the stress intensity factor

This paper proposes a new type of special element (sectorial singular element) for calculating the linear elastic stress intensity factor. The shape of element not only accords with the demands of finite element analysis, but also coincides with the theory of linear elastic fracture mechanics. The accuracy and economy of the result in this paper are satisfactory.     

实验—数值综合法确定受载复合材料板的变形场和损伤场

本文根据广义弹脆性损伤理论模型，用综合实验分析和数值计算的方法，确定受载复合材料板的形变场和损伤场。首先用云纹干涉法确定各受损单元的节点位移，再用有限元分析得到这些单元的真实应变和有效应变。由此计算受载各单元的损伤变量和有效弹性系数。最后，根据弹脆性材料的损伤本构关系确定受载复合材料板的真实应力场。     

Design sensitivity analysis for parameters affecting geometry,elastic–viscoplastic material constant and boundary condition by consistent tangent operator-based boundary element method

This paper presents a design sensitivity analysis method by the consistent tangent operator concept-based boundary element implicit algorithm. The design variables for sensitivity analysis include geometry parameters, elastic–viscoplastic material parameters and boundary condition parameters. Based on small strain theory, Perzyna’s elastic–viscoplastic material constitutive relation with a mixed hardening model and two flow functions is considered in the sensitivity analysis. The related elastic–viscoplastic radial return algorithm and the formula of elastic–viscoplastic consistent tangent operator are derived and discussed. Based on the direct differentiation approach, the incremental boundary integral equations and related algorithms for both geometric and elastic–viscoplastic sensitivity analysis are developed. A 2D boundary element program for geometry sensitivity, elastic–viscoplastic material constant sensitivity and boundary condition sensitivity has been developed. Comparison and discussion with the results of this paper, analytical solution and finite element code ANSYS for four plane strain numerical examples are presented finally.     

Selection of finite-element mesh parameters in modeling the growth of hydraulic fracturing cracks

The effect of the mesh geometry on the accuracy of solutions obtained by the finite-element method for problems of linear fracture mechanics is investigated. The guidelines have been formulated for constructing an optimum mesh for several routine problems involving elements with linear and quadratic approximation of displacements. The accuracy of finite-element solutions is estimated based on the degree of the difference between the calculated stress-intensity factor (SIF) and its value obtained analytically. In problems of hydrofracturing of oil-bearing formation, the pump-in pressure of injected water produces a distributed load on crack flanks as opposed to standard fracture mechanics problems that have analytical solutions, where a load is applied to the external boundaries of the computational region and the cracks themselves are kept free from stresses. Some model pressure profiles, as well as pressure profiles taken from real hydrodynamic computations, have been considered. Computer models of cracks with allowance for the pre-stressed state, fracture toughness, and elastic properties of materials are developed in the MSC.Marc 2012 finite-element analysis software. The Irwin force criterion is used as a criterion of brittle fracture and the SIFs are computed using the Cherepanov–Rice invariant J-integral. The process of crack propagation in a linearly elastic isotropic body is described in terms of the elastic energy release rate G and modeled using the VCCT (Virtual Crack Closure Technique) approach. It has been found that the solution accuracy is sensitive to the mesh configuration. Several parameters that are decisive in constructing effective finite-element meshes, namely, the minimum element size, the distance between mesh nodes in the vicinity of a crack tip, and the ratio of the height of an element to its length, have been established. It has been shown that a mesh that consists of only small elements does not improve the accuracy of the solution.     

Stress analysis of functionally graded shells using a 7-parameter shell element

In this paper, finite element stress analysis of functionally graded structures using a high-order spectral/hp shell finite element is presented. The shell element is based on a seven-parameter first-order shear deformation theory in which the seventh parameter, in addition to the usual six degrees of freedom, is the thickness stretch. The continuum shell element is utilized for the numerical simulations of the fully geometrically nonlinear response of functionally graded elastic shell structures. Several nontrivial shell problems are considered to report deflections and stresses, the latter being the main focus of the current paper. It is found that the stresses computed in the current study agree only in some cases with those of ANSYS and/or ABAQUS and thus requires additional study to determine the cause of the disagreement.