Numerical results for mimetic discretization of Reissner-Mindlin plate problems

A low-order mimetic finite difference (MFD) method for Reissner-Mindlin plate problems is considered. Together with the source problem, the free vibration and the buckling problems are investigated. Full details about the scheme implementation are provided, and the numerical results on several different types of meshes are reported

Meshless methods for shear-deformable beams and plates based on mixed weak forms

Thin structural theories such as the shear-deformable Timoshenko beam and Reissner-Mindlin plate theories have seen wide use throughout engineering practice to simulate the response of structures with planar dimensions far larger than their thickness dimension. Meshless methods have been applied to construct numerical methods to solve the shear deformable theories. Similarly to the finite element method, meshless methods must be carefully designed to overcome the well-known shear-locking problem. Many successful treatments of shear-locking in the finite element literature are constructed through the application of a mixed weak form. In the mixed weak form the shear stresses are treated as an independent variational quantity in addition to the usual displacement variables. We introduce a novel hybrid meshless-finite element formulation for the Timoshenko beam problem that converges to the stable first-order/zero-order finite element method in the local limit when using maximum entropy meshless basis functions. The resulting formulation is free from the effects shear-locking. We then consider the Reissner-Mindlin plate problem. The shear stresses can be identified as a vector field belonging to the Sobelov space with square integrable rotation, suggesting the use of rotated Raviart-Thomas-Nedelec elements of lowest-order for discretising the shear stress field. This novel formulation is again free from the effects of shear-locking. Finally we consider the construction of a generalised displacement method where the shear stresses are eliminated prior to the solution of the final linear system of equations. We implement an existing technique in the literature for the Stokes problem called the nodal volume averaging technique. To ensure stability we split the shear energy between a part calculated using the displacement variables and the mixed variables resulting in a stabilised weak form. The method then satisfies the stability conditions resulting in a formulation that is free from the effects of shear-locking.Open Acces

On stabilized finite element methods for linear systems of convection-diffusion-reaction equations

A stabilized finite element method for solving systems of convection-diffusion-reaction equations is studied in this paper. The method is based on the subgrid scale approach and an algebraic approximation to the subscales. After presenting the formulation of the method, it is analyzed how it behaves under changes of variables, showing that it relies on the law of change of the matrix of stabilization parameters associated to the method. An expression for this matrix is proposed for the case of general coupled systems of equations that is an extension of the expression proposed for a 1D model problem. Applications of the stabilization technique to the Stokes problem with convection and to the bending of Reissner-Mindlin plates are discussed next. The design of the matrix of stabilization parameters is based on the identification of the stability deficiencies of the standard Galerkin method applied to these two problems

Locking-free HDG methods for Reissner-Mindlin plates equations on polygonal meshes

We present and analyze a new hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method (HDG) for the Reissner-Mindlin plate bending system. Our method is based on the formulation utilizing Helmholtz Decomposition. Then the system is decomposed into three problems: two trivial Poisson problems and a perturbed saddle-point problem. We apply HDG scheme for these three problems fully. This scheme yields the optimal convergence rate ($(k+1)$th order in the $\mathrm{L}^2$ norm) which is uniform with respect to plate thickness (locking-free) on general meshes. We further analyze the matrix properties and precondition the new finite element system. Numerical experiments are presented to confirm our theoretical analysis

ISOGEOMETRIC ANALYSIS AND PATCHWISE REPRODUCING POLYNOMIAL PARTICLE METHOD FOR PLATES

Isogeometric analysis (IGA) ([8, 16, 27]) is designed to combine two tasks, design by Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA), so that it drastically reduces the error in the representation of the computational domain and the re-meshing by the use of “exact” CAD geometry directed at the coarsest level of discretization. This is achieved by using B-splines or non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) for the description of geometries as well as for the representation of unknown solution fields. In order to handle the singularities arising in the PDEs, Babu?ska and Oh [7] introduced mapping techniques, called the Method of Auxiliary Mapping (MAM), into conventional p-version of Finite Element Methods (FEM). In a similar spirit to MAM, it is possible to construct a novel NURBS geometrical mapping that generates singular functions resembling the singularities. The proposed mapping technique is concerned with constructions of unconventional novel geometrical mappings by which push-forward of B-spline functions defined on the parameter space generates singular functions in a physical domain that resemble the given point singularities. In other words, the pull-back of the singularity into the parameter space by the non standard NURBS mapping becomes highly smooth. However, the mapping technique is not able to handle in the framework of IGA. Thus, we consider how to use the proposed mapping method in IGA of elliptic prob- lems and elasticity containing singularities without changing the design mapping. For this end, we embed the mapping method into the standard IGA that uses NURBS basis functions for which h - p - k-refinements are applicable for improved computational solution. In other words, the mapping method will be used to enrich NURBS basis functions around neighborhood of singularities so that they can capture singular behaviors of the solution to be approximated. Finally, Reproducing Polynomial Particle Method (RPPM) is one of meshless methods that use meshes minimally or do not use meshes at all. In this disserta- tion, the RPPM is employed for free vibration and buckling of the first order shear deformation model (FSDT), called the Reissner-Mindlin plate, and for analysis of boundary layer of the Reissner-Mindlin plate. For numerical implementation, we use flat-top partition of unity functions, introduced by Oh et al, and patchwise RPPM in which approximation functions have high order polynomial reproducing property and shape functions satisfying the Kronecker delta property. Also, we demonstrate that our method is more effective than other existing methods in dealing with Reissner- Mindlin plates with various material properties and boundary conditions

Isogeometric analysis based on rational splines over hierarchical T-mesh and alpha finite element method for structural analysis

This thesis presents two new methods in finite elements and isogeometric analysis for structural analysis. The first method proposes an alternative alpha finite element method using triangular elements. In this method, the piecewise constant strain field of linear triangular finite element method models is enhanced by additional strain terms with an adjustable parameter a, which results in an effectively softer stiffness formulation compared to a linear triangular element. In order to avoid the transverse shear locking of Reissner-Mindlin plates analysis the alpha finite element method is coupled with a discrete shear gap technique for triangular elements to significantly improve the accuracy of the standard triangular finite elements. The basic idea behind this element formulation is to approximate displacements and rotations as in the standard finite element method, but to construct the bending, geometrical and shear strains using node-based smoothing domains. Several numerical examples are presented and show that the alpha FEM gives a good agreement compared to several other methods in the literature. Second method, isogeometric analysis based on rational splines over hierarchical T-meshes (RHT-splines) is proposed. The RHT-splines are a generalization of Non-Uniform Rational B-splines (NURBS) over hierarchical T-meshes, which is a piecewise bicubic polynomial over a hierarchical T-mesh. The RHT-splines basis functions not only inherit all the properties of NURBS such as non-negativity, local support and partition of unity but also more importantly as the capability of joining geometric objects without gaps, preserving higher order continuity everywhere and allow local refinement and adaptivity. In order to drive the adaptive refinement, an efficient recovery-based error estimator is employed. For this problem an imaginary surface is defined. The imaginary surface is basically constructed by RHT-splines basis functions which is used for approximation and interpolation functions as well as the construction of the recovered stress components. Numerical investigations prove that the proposed method is capable to obtain results with higher accuracy and convergence rate than NURBS results

Hp-spectral Methods for Structural Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics Problems

We consider the usage of higher order spectral element methods for the solution of problems in structures and fluid mechanics areas. In structures applications we study different beam theories, with mixed and displacement based formulations, consider the analysis of plates subject to external loadings, and large deformation analysis of beams with continuum based formulations. Higher order methods alleviate the problems of locking that have plagued finite element method applications to structures, and also provide for spectral accuracy of the solutions. For applications in computational fluid dynamics areas we consider the driven cavity problem with least squares based finite element methods. In the context of higher order methods, efficient techniques need to be devised for the solution of the resulting algebraic systems of equations and we explore the usage of element by element bi-orthogonal conjugate gradient solvers for solving problems effectively along with domain decomposition algorithms for fluid problems. In the context of least squares finite element methods we also explore the usage of Multigrid techniques to obtain faster convergence of the the solutions for the problems of interest. Applications of the traditional Lagrange based finite element methods with the Penalty finite element method are presented for modelling porous media flow problems. Finally, we explore applications to some CFD problems namely, the flow past a cylinder and forward facing step

A cell-based smoothed finite element method for kinematic limit analysis

This paper presents a new numerical procedure for kinematic limit analysis problems, which incorporates the cell-based smoothed finite element method with second-order cone programming. The application of a strain smoothing technique to the standard displacement finite element both rules out volumetric locking and also results in an efficient method that can provide accurate solutions with minimal computational effort. The non-smooth optimization problem is formulated as a problem of minimizing a sum of Euclidean norms, ensuring that the resulting optimization problem can be solved by an efficient second-order cone programming algorithm. Plane stress and plane strain problems governed by the von Mises criterion are considered, but extensions to problems with other yield criteria having a similar conic quadratic form or 3D problems can be envisaged