Extension of the scaled boundary finite element method to plate bending problems

The scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) is extended to the static analysis of thin plates in the framework of Kirchhoff's plate theory. The governing equations are transformed into scaled boundary coordinates. Applying a discrete form of the Kantorovich reduction method results in a set of ordinary differential equations, which can be solved in a closed-form analytical manner. The element stiffness matrices for bounded and unbounded media can be computed, using appropriate subsets of the analytical solution. Examples show the efficiency of the method, applied to plate bending problems. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

SBFEM elements for thin-walled composite beams with arbitrary layup

The scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) is a semi-analytical method in which only the boundary is discretized. The results on the boundary are scaled into the domain with respect to a scaling center which must be “visible” from the whole boundary. For beam-like problems the scaling center can be selected at infinity and only the cross-section is discretized. Two new elements for thin-walled beams have been developed on the basis of the first order shear deformation theory. The beam sections are considered to be multilayered laminate plates with arbitrary layup. The arbitrary cross-section is discretized with beam elements of Timoshenko type. Using the virtual work principle gives the SBFEM equation, which is a system of differential equations of a gyroscopic type. The solution is calculated using the matrix exponential function. The elements have been tested and compared with a finite element model and they give good results. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The scaled boundary FEM for nonlinear problems

The traditional scaled boundary finite-element method (SBFEM) is a rather efficient semi-analytical technique widely applied in engineering, which is however valid mostly for linear differential equations. In this paper, the traditional SBFEM is combined with the homotopy analysis method (HAM), an analytic technique for strongly nonlinear problems: a nonlinear equation is first transformed into a series of linear equations by means of the HAM, and then solved by the traditional SBFEM. In this way, the traditional SBFEM is extended to nonlinear differential equations. A nonlinear heat transfer problem is used as an example to show the validity and computational efficiency of this new SBFEM.     

Extension of the scaled boundary finite element method to geometrical and physical nonlinearity

The scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) has been used in many fields of engineering to solve the governing equations in bounded and unbounded 2D as well as 3D domains. In solid mechanics, the semi-analytical solution strategy of the SBFE formulation (numerical in circumferential direction, analytical in radial direction) is based on the assumption of linear elastic material behavior and only small geometrical changes. However, a large group of materials (e.g. rubber) shows geometrical and physical nonlinearity at mechanical loading. In this contribution, the extension of the SBFEM to geometrical and physical nonlinearity is examined. A plane finite element is developed which uses the concept of shape functions constructed by the SBFEM in the framework of a nonlinear finite element analysis. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A modified scaled boundary finite element method for dynamic response of a discontinuous layered half-space

In this paper, a modified scaled boundary finite element method is proposed to deal with the dynamic analysis of a discontinuous layered half-space. In order to describe the geometry of discontinuous layered half-space exactly, splicing lines, rather than a point, are chosen as the scaling center. Based on the modified scaled boundary transformation of the geometry, the Galerkin's weighted residual technique is applied to obtain the corresponding scaled boundary finite element equations in displacement. Then a modified version of dimensionless frequency is defined, and the governing first-order partial differential equations in dynamic stiffness with respect to the excitation frequency are obtained. The global stiffness is obtained by adding the dynamic stiffness of the interior domain calculated by a standard finite element method, and the dynamic stiffness of far field is calculated by the proposed method. The comparison of two existing solutions for a horizontal layered half-space confirms the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach. Finally, the dynamic response of a discontinuous layered half-space due to vertical uniform strip loadings is investigated.     

Thermo-mechanical modeling of crack propagation in dynamically loaded elastomer specimens using a scaled boundary finite element approach

Recently, a scaled boundary finite element (SBFE) formulation for geometrically and physically nonlinear materials has been developed using the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM). The SBFE formulation has been employed to describe plane stress problems of notched and unnotched hyperelastic elastomer specimens. In this contribution, the derived SBFE formulation is extended to nonlinear time- and temperature-dependent material behavior. Subsequently, the SBFE formulation is incorporated into a crack propagation scheme to model crack propagation in cyclically loaded elastomer specimens of the so-called tear fatigue analyzer (TFA). (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Scaled boundary finite element analysis of stress singularities in piezoelectric multi-material systems

The scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) in an extension for piezoelectric materials is used to analyze twoand three-dimensional stress singularities in piezoelectric multi-material systems. It is found to be an efficient tool for the analysis of singularity orders of such situations, that turn out to be rather complex. (© 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Analysis of free-edge effects by boundary finite element method

The scaled boundary finite element method is a novel semi-analytical analysis technique that combines the advantages of the finite element method and the boundary element method. Only a part of the boundary of the considered domain has to be discretized but nevertheless the method is solely finite element based. The governing equations are solved in the so-called scaling direction analytically, whereas a finite element approximation of the solution is performed in the circumferential directions, which form the boundary of the considered domain. Thus, the numerical effort can be reduced considerably when handling stress concentration problems such as e.g. the free-edge effect in laminated plates. In order to analyze the free-edge effect in a semi-infinite half plane, some kinematic coupling equations have to be introduced, that not only couple the degrees of freedom on the boundary, but also within the non-discretized domain. The implementation of kinematic coupling equations within the method is presented. Finally, the efficiency of the new approach is shown in some benchmark examples. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Elastic wave radiation and scattering in heterogeneous soil using the scaled boundary finite element method

A time-domain approach for the simulation of elastic waves in heterogeneous soil domains is presented. It is based on modelling both near and far field by the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM). The SBFEM facilitates the use of a structured mesh in the near field region without the need to circumvent hanging nodes. The quadtree mesh is obtained automatically from image data. Radiation damping in the far field is modelled accurately by means of a displacement unit-impulse-response-based formulation. An example analysis of wave radiation by an alluvial basin illustrates the potential of the proposed methodology. (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Analysis of quadruple corner-cut ridged square waveguide using a scaled boundary finite element method

This paper describes the development of an efficient semi-analytical method, namely scaled boundary finite-element method (SBFEM) for a quadruple corner-cut ridged square waveguide. Thinking about its symmetry, only a quarter of its cross-section needs to be considered and divided into a few sub-domains. Only the boundaries of the sub-domains are discretized with line elements leading to great flexibility in mesh generation. The singularities in the re-entrant corners are represented analytically by locating the scaling center in those points. Variational principle approach is presented to formulate the basis SBFE equations for the sub-domains. Then, an equation of the ‘stiffness matrix’ on the discretized boundary is established. Finally, by using the continued-fraction solution and introducing auxiliary variables, a generalized eigenvalue equation with respect to the cutoff wave number is obtained without introducing an internal mesh. Numerical results are presented to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the present technique. Variations of the cutoff wave numbers of the dominant and higher-order modes for both TE and TM cases with the corner-cut ridge dimensions are investigated in details. Simple approximate equations are found to accurately predict the cutoff wave number of TE_20U, TE₂₂, TM₁₁ and TM_13L modes. The single mode bandwidth of the waveguide is also calculated.     

Analysis of thin laminated plates by means of the scaled boundary finite element method

A new scaled boundary finite element formulation for the static analysis of laminated plates is presented. The problem is formulated in scaled boundary coordinates using a discrete form of the reduction method by Kantorovich. The resulting systems of linear ordinary differential equations for the unknown displacement functions are solved analytically. Element stiffness matrices can be calculated from the appropriate solution subsets for bounded and unbounded domains. From the inherent field expansion in one spatial direction, exponents and coefficients can be extracted efficiently. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

基于比例边界有限元法和灰狼优化算法的裂纹尖端位置识别

基于比例边界有限元法(SBFEM)和灰狼优化(GWO)算法,提出了一种裂纹尖端识别方法。首先,借助SBFEM解决断裂力学问题特有的优势,快速准确地计算出反演所需的测点位移,并验证了正问题求解的正确性。其次,建立与裂纹尖端位置有关的目标函数,将求解裂纹尖端位置转换为求解目标函数最小值的优化问题。最后,采用GWO算法对目标函数进行了优化,进而搜索裂纹尖端的最佳位置。数值算例结果表明:利用SBFEM的高精度、半解析的优点,在反演过程中采用其求解正问题是非常有效的;GWO算法具有良好的全局收敛性,且相比经典的粒子群算法,能够更快速准确地搜索出裂纹尖端的位置;GWO算法具有较好的抗噪性。     

A surface oriented solid formulation based on a hybrid Galerkin-collocation method

The contribution is concerned with a numerical method to analyze the mechanical behavior of 3D solids. The method employs directly the geometry defined by the boundary representation modeling technique, which is frequently used in CAD to define solids. It combines the benefits of the isogeometric analysis methodology with the scaled boundary finite element method. In the present approach, only the boundary surfaces of the solid are discretized. No tensor-product structure of three-dimensional objects is exploited to parametrize the physical domain. The weak form is applied only on the boundary surfaces. The governing partial differential equations of elasticity are transformed to an ordinary differential equation (ODE) of Euler type. The isogeometric Galerkin approach is employed to approximate the displacement response at the boundary surfaces. It exploits the two-dimensional NURBS objects to parametrize the boundary surfaces. To solve the Euler type ODE, the NURBS based collocation approach is applied. The accuracy of the method is validated against the analytical solutions. The presented method is able to analyze solids, which are bounded by an arbitrary number of surfaces. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Hypersingularities in three-dimensional crack configurations in composite laminates

Three-dimensional crack configurations in composite laminates are studied by means of the Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method (SBFEM) particularly regarding stress singularities and their associated deformation modes. The SBFEM is an efficient semi-analytical method that permits solving linear elastic mechanical problems. Only the boundary needs to be discretized while the problem is considered analytically in the direction of the dimensionless radial coordinate pointing from the scaling center to the boundary . An important advantage is that it requires no additional effort for the characterization of existing stress singularities. The situation of two meeting inter-fiber cracks is investigated in detail, considering different materials and fiber / crack orientations. It is shown that in three-dimensional crack configurations in composite laminates so-called hypersingularities can occur, i.e. stress singularities which are even stronger than the classical crack singularity. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Free vibration analysis of cracked postbuckled plate

In this paper, a methodology is introduced to address the free vibration analysis of cracked plate subjected to a uniaxial inplane compressive load for the first time. The crack, assumed to be open and at the edge is modeled by a massless linear rotational spring. The governing differential equations are derived using the Mindlin theory, taking into account the effect of initial imperfection. The response is assumed to be consisting of static and dynamic parts. For the static part, differential equations are discretized using the differential quadrature element method and resulting nonlinear algebraic equations are solved by an arc-length strategy. Assuming small amplitude vibrations of the plate about its buckled state and exploiting the static solution in the linearized vibration equations, the dynamic equations are converted into a non-standard eigenvalue problem. Finally, natural frequencies and modal shapes of the cracked buckled plate are obtained by solving this eigenvalue problem. To ensure the validity of the suggested approach an experimental setup and a numerical finite element model have been made to analyze the vibration of a cracked square plate with simply supported boundary conditions. Also, several case-studies of cracked buckled plate problem have been solved utilizing the proposed method, and effects of selected parameters have been studied. The results show that the applied load and geometric imperfection as well as the position, size and depth of the crack have different impact on natural frequencies of the plate.     

Numerical Simulations of Pile Integrity Tests Using a Coupled FEM SBFEM Approach

Piles are widely used to build a proper foundation for various buildings. The pile's quality in situ can be tested by a so called pile integrity test. In order to apply this test, an acceleration sensor is attached to the pile's head which than receives an impulse. Due to this impulse a p-wave runs through the pile. The major part of this wave is reflected from the pile's toe and is measured by the attached acceleration sensor on top of the pile. This yields an acceleration-time plot which has to be analysed to determine the pile's condition. Sometimes the interpretation of these plots is difficult, specially when the cross-section of the pile is changing or is influenced by the surrounding soil. For a better understanding of this kind of measurements, numerical simulations can be performed. For these simulations a coupled finite element method (FEM) and scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) approach is used. This approach satisfies Sommerfeld's radiation condition and allows simulating an infinite half-space. This ensures that the applied impulse will not to be reflected at the artificial boundary which is introduced by the boundary of the numerical discretisation. The coupled approach proposed here requires discretisation of a small domain only in contrast to a purely FEM-based approach. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Discontinuous Galerkin least-squares finite element methods for singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problems with discontinuous coefficients and boundary singularities

In this paper, a discontinuous Galerkin least-squares finite element method is developed for singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problems with discontinuous coefficients and boundary singularities by recasting the second-order elliptic equations as a system of first-order equations. In a companion paper (Lin in SIAM J Numer Anal 47:89–108, 2008) a similar method has been developed for problems with continuous data and shown to be well-posed, uniformly convergent, and optimal in convergence rate. In this paper the method is modified to take care of conditions that arise at interfaces and boundary singularities. Coercivity and uniform error estimates for the finite element approximation are established in an appropriately scaled norm. Numerical examples confirm the theoretical results.     

Immersed finite element methods for 4th order differential equations

We propose three new finite element methods for solving boundary value problems of 4th order differential equations with discontinuous coefficients. Typical differential equations modeling the small transverse displacement of a beam and a thin plate formed by multiple uniform materials are considered. One important feature of these finite element methods is that their meshes can be independent of the interface between different materials. Finite element spaces based on both the conforming and mixed formulations are presented. Numerical examples are given to illustrate capabilities of these methods.     

The equilibrium boundary element method in boundary-value problems of elasticity theory

An equilibrium boundary element method is proposed for solving boundary-value problems in the theory of elasticity, thermo-elasticity, the dynamical theory of elasticity, bar torsion calculations, and the bending of a plate. The idea is to use simultaneously the method of constructing bundles of functions which exactly satisfy the equilibrium equations, the boundary variational equations of mechanics, and the methods of discrete finite-element approximation. The variational method of constructing the resolving boundary equations ensures that the linear system is symmetric and easily coupled to the finite-element method. Since volume integrals are eliminated the dimensions of the problem are reduced by one, but, unlike the boundary element method, there is no need to know the fundamental solutions. The solution of some bar torsion and plate bending problems confirms the high numerical efficiency of the method.