A geometric feature for finite element schemes

In this note we characterize the geometric feature of a (μ;r,k)—FES. Namely, for a C^μ triangular interpolation scheme with C^r vertex data, any angle of the macrotriangle must be divided into at least (μ+1)/(r+1−μ) parts.     

Numerical electroseismic modeling: A finite element approach

Electroseismics is a procedure that uses the conversion of electromagnetic to seismic waves in a fluid-saturated porous rock due to the electrokinetic phenomenon. This work presents a collection of continuous and discrete time finite element procedures for electroseismic modeling in poroelastic fluid-saturated media. The model involves the simultaneous solution of Biot’s equations of motion and Maxwell’s equations in a bounded domain, coupled via an electrokinetic coefficient, with appropriate initial conditions and employing absorbing boundary conditions at the artificial boundaries. The 3D case is formulated and analyzed in detail including results on the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the initial boundary value problem. Apriori error estimates for a continuous-time finite element procedure based on parallelepiped elements are derived, with Maxwell’s equations discretized in space using the lowest order mixed finite element spaces of Nédélec, while for Biot’s equations a nonconforming element for each component of the solid displacement vector and the vector part of the Raviart-Thomas-Nédélec of zero order for the fluid displacement vector are employed. A fully implicit discrete-time finite element method is also defined and its stability is demonstrated. The results are also extended to the case of tetrahedral elements. The 2D cases of compressional and vertically polarized shear waves coupled with the transverse magnetic polarization (PSVTM-mode) and horizontally polarized shear waves coupled with the transverse electric polarization (SHTE-mode) are also formulated and the corresponding finite element spaces are defined. The 1D SHTE initial boundary value problem is also formulated and approximately solved using a discrete-time finite element procedure, which was implemented to obtain the numerical examples presented.     

Development of a single-layer finite element and a simplified finite element modeling approach for constrained layer damped structures

A new finite element (FE) is formulated based on an extension of previous FE models for studying constrained layer damping (CLD) in beams. Most existing CLD FE models are based on the assumption that the shear deformation in the core layer is the only source of damping in the structure. However, previous research has shown that other types of deformation in the core layer, such as deformations from longitudinal extension, and transverse compression, can also be important. In the finite element formulated here, shear, extension, and compression deformations are all included. As presented, there are 14 degrees of freedom in this element. However, this new element can be extended to cases in which the CLD structure has more than three layers. The numerical study shows that this finite element can be used to predict the dynamic characteristics accurately. However, there is a limitation when the core layer has a high stiffness, as the new element tends to predict loss factors and natural frequencies that are too high. As a result, this element can be accepted as a general computation model to study the CLD mechanism when the core layer is soft. Because the element includes all three types of damping, the computational cost can be very high for large scale models. Based on this consideration, a simplified finite modeling approach is presented. This approach is based on an existing experimental approach for extracting equivalent properties for a CLD structure. Numerical examples show that the use of these extracted properties with commercially available FE models can lead to sufficiently accurate results with a lower computational expense.     

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)     

Application of inverse finite element method in tube hydroforming modeling

In tube hydroforming, the inverse finite element method (IFEM) has been used for estimating the initial length of tube, axial feeding and fluid pressure. The already developed IFEM algorithm used in this work is based on the total deformation theory of plasticity. Although the nature of tube hydroforming is three-dimensional deformation, in this paper a modeling technique has been used to perform the computations in two-dimensional space. Therefore, compared with conventional forward finite element methods, the present computations are quite fast with no trial and error process. In addition, the solution provides all the components of strain. Using the forming limit diagram (FLD), the components of strain can lead us to measure the potentials for failures or wrinkles during the deformation. The results of analysis for free bulging and square bulging have been compared with some published experimental data and the results obtained by conventional commercial software.     

Extended finite element modeling of deformable porous media with arbitrary interfaces

In this paper, an enriched finite element method is presented for numerical simulation of saturated porous media. The arbitrary discontinuities, such as material interfaces, are encountered via the extended finite element method (X-FEM) by enhancing the standard FEM displacements. The X-FEM technique is applied to the governing equations of porous media for the spatial discretization, followed by a generalized Newmark scheme used for the time domain discretization. In X-FEM, the material interfaces are represented independently of element boundaries and the process is accomplished by partitioning the domain with some triangular sub-elements whose Gauss points are used for integration of the domain of elements. Finally, several numerical examples are analyzed, including the dynamic analysis of the failure of lower San Fernando dam, to demonstrate the efficiency of the X-FEM technique in saturated porous soils.     

A finite element modeling of piezoelectric materials with a superimposed stress

Based on the mechanism of domain switching, a three dimensional nonlinear finite element model for piezoelectric materials subjected to electromechancial loading is developed in this contribution. The finally considered model problem deals with differently oriented grains whereby uni-axial, quasi-static cyclic loading is applied. It is assumed that a crystal orientation switches if the reduction in free energy of the grain exceeds a critical energy barrier. The nonlinearity in the small electromechanical loading range is addresses via a polynomial probability function for domain switching. Hysteresis behavior is discussed taking the influence of a superimposed compression state into account. It is observed that the hysteresis loop flattens under the axial compression but elongates under the transverse compression. Irrespective of how the compression is applied, the remnant polarization and as well as the coercive electric field decrease. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Efficient nonlinear finite element modeling of slab on steel stringer bridges

This paper conducts three-dimensional (3D), nonlinear finite element analyses (FEA) to predict ultimate load behavior of slab on steel stringer bridge superstructures. This is accomplished using the commercial finite element package ABAQUS to efficiently capture the behavior of such bridges; comprehensive details of the modeling procedure are presented herein. Two composite steel girders fabricated from high performance steel (HPS) and one four-span continuous composite steel bridge tested to failure have been used to validate the proposed FEA models. These FEA results indicate excellent agreement with the experimental data.     

POD reduced-order modeling for evolution equations utilizing arbitrary finite element discretizations

The main focus of the present work is the inclusion of spatial adaptivity for the snapshot computation in the offline phase of model order reduction utilizing proper orthogonal decomposition (POD-MOR) for nonlinear parabolic evolution problems. We consider snapshots which live in different finite element spaces, which means in a fully discrete setting that the snapshots are vectors of different length. From a numerical point of view, this leads to the problem that the usual POD procedure which utilizes a singular value decomposition of the snapshot matrix, cannot be carried out. In order to overcome this problem, we here construct the POD model/basis using the eigensystem of the correlation matrix (snapshot Gramian), which is motivated from a continuous perspective and is set up explicitly, e.g., without the necessity of interpolating snapshots into a common finite element space. It is an advantage of this approach that the assembly of the matrix only requires the evaluation of inner products of snapshots in a common Hilbert space. This allows a great flexibility concerning the spatial discretization of the snapshots. The analysis for the error between the resulting POD solution and the true solution reveals that the accuracy of the reduced-order solution can be estimated by the spatial and temporal discretization error as well as the POD error. Finally, to illustrate the feasibility of our approach, we present a test case of the Cahn–Hilliard system utilizing h-adapted hierarchical meshes and two settings of a linear heat equation using nested and non-nested grids.     

A double degenerated finite element for modeling the crack tip singularity

The objective of this paper is to propose a modified finite element called double quarter point finite element (DQPE) for modeling the singularity near the crack tip. Two techniques of evaluation (displacement correlation technique DCT and quarter point displacement technique QPDT) were used to estimate numerically the calibration factor for CN specimen. This study appears that the DQPE element is more effective than the QPE element. Not only that, but the length of the double quarter point finite element (DQPE) has little impact on the results. Numerical experiments are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed element.     

Parallel multi-frontal solver for p adaptive finite element modeling of multi-physics computational problems

The paper presents a parallel direct solver for multi-physics problems. The solver is dedicated for solving problems resulting from adaptive finite element method computations. The concept of finite element is actually replaced by the concept of the node. The computational mesh consists of several nodes, related to element vertices, edges, faces and interiors. The ordering of unknowns in the solver is performed on the level of nodes. The concept of the node can be efficiently utilized in order to recognize unknowns that can be eliminated at a given node of the elimination tree. The solver is tested on the exemplary three-dimensional multi-physics problem involving the computations of the linear acoustics coupled with linear elasticity. The three-dimensional tetrahedral mesh generation and the solver algorithm are modeled by using graph grammar formalism. The execution time and the memory usage of the solver are compared with the MUMPS solver.     

Extensions and duality of finite geometric closure operators

If P and P are finite partially ordered sets such that P=P–e for some maximal element e P, all geometric closure operators on P are determined whose restriction to P equals a given closure operator on P.The classes Q(P) and Q(P^*) of all geometric closure operators on P and on its order dual P^* are shown to be anti-isomorphic partially ordered sets.     

Combined use of the finite element and finite superelement methods

Results of the theoretical and numerical studies of an algorithm based on the combined use of the finite element and finite superelement methods are presented. Estimates of the errors for one of the variants of the method applied to solving the Laplace equation are obtained. The method can be used to solve a problem concerning the skin layer appearing due to high velocities.     

Pasch geometric spaces inducing finite projective planes

Summary A geometric space over a geometric sfield of dimension three induces a protective plane. A relation between the order of the projective plane and that of the geometric sfield is obtained. For a particular order of the sfield, the induced projective plane is shown to be desarguesian.     

Nonconforming finite element methods

Some interesting and important nonconforming finite elements for the second- and fourth-order elliptic problems are briefly described and analyzed.     

Lagrange interpolation and finite element superconvergence

We consider the finite element approximation of the Laplacian operator with the homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition, and study the corresponding Lagrange interpolation in the context of finite element superconvergence. For d‐dimensional Q_k‐type elements with d ≥ 1 and k ≥ 1, we prove that the interpolation points must be the Lobatto points if the Lagrange interpolation and the finite element solution are superclose in H¹ norm. For d‐dimensional P_k‐type elements, we consider the standard Lagrange interpolation—the Lagrange interpolation with interpolation points being the principle lattice points of simplicial elements. We prove for d ≥ 2 and k ≥ d + 1 that such interpolation and the finite element solution are not superclose in both H¹ and L² norms and that not all such interpolation points are superconvergence points for the finite element approximation. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 20: 33–59, 2004.     

SPR technique and finite element correction

Summary This paper considers the finite element method for two-point boundary value problems using projection interpolation. Some correction results for the derivative and displacement are proved directly. Computational results demonstrate the theoretical findings. This work was supported by China NSF. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000):65N30The authors would like to thank the referees and Professor M. Krizk for the comments and suggestions for improving the presentation of this paper.     

Nonlinear,finite deformation,finite element analysis

The roles of the consistent Jacobian matrix and the material tangent moduli, which are used in nonlinear incremental finite deformation mechanics problems solved using the finite element method, are emphasized in this paper, and demonstrated using the commercial software ABAQUS standard. In doing so, the necessity for correctly employing user material subroutines to solve nonlinear problems involving large deformation and/or large rotation is clarified. Starting with the rate form of the principle of virtual work, the derivations of the material tangent moduli, the consistent Jacobian matrix, the stress/strain measures, and the objective stress rates are discussed and clarified. The difference between the consistent Jacobian matrix (which, in the ABAQUS UMAT user material subroutine is referred to as DDSDDE) and the material tangent moduli (C^e) needed for the stress update is pointed out and emphasized in this paper. While the former is derived based on the Jaumann rate of the Kirchhoff stress, the latter is derived using the Jaumann rate of the Cauchy stress. Understanding the difference between these two objective stress rates is crucial for correctly implementing a constitutive model, especially a rate form constitutive relation, and for ensuring fast convergence. Specifically, the implementation requires the stresses to be updated correctly. For this, the strains must be computed directly from the deformation gradient and corresponding strain measure (for a total form model). Alternatively, the material tangent moduli derived from the corresponding Jaumann rate of the Cauchy stress of the constitutive relation (for a rate form model) should be used. Given that this requirement is satisfied, the consistent Jacobian matrix only influences the rate of convergence. Its derivation should be based on the Jaumann rate of the Kirchhoff stress to ensure fast convergence; however, the use of a different objective stress rate may also be possible. The error associated with energy conservation and work-conjugacy due to the use of the Jaumann objective stress rate in ABAQUS nonlinear incremental analysis is viewed as a consequence of the implementation of a constitutive model that violates these requirements.