Elastoplastic analysis of solid structures using penalty-based couple stress finite element method within framework of Cosserat continuum

To obviate the complexities of the straight forward couple stress finite element method,the penalty-based couple stress finite element method(named PcouFEM)within the framework of the Cosserat continuum is utilized to obtain the approximate solution by relaxing the C1 continuity.To examine the performance of the PcouFEM,three well known numerical examples are investigated.For the analysis on stress concentration around the circular hole of the plane strain specimen,it was found that as long as the penalty factor G_(c) is not less than 5 times the shear modulus of the classical continuum G(i.e.,G_(c)≥5G),the stress concentration factors calculated by the PcouFEM with the reduced integration scheme agree well with the analytical solutions.For the strain localization analysis in the uniaxial compression test,it was observed that by applying the PcouFEM,the pathologically mesh-dependent problem associated with the conventional FEM can be alleviated or even removed,and based on numerical simulations,it is recommended to define 5G≤G_(c)≤10G from the perspective of numerical accuracy.For the soil slope subjected to an eccentric load through the rigid strip footing,it was found that the mesh-dependent problem of the shear band simulation can be largely alleviated by applying the PcouFEM.

Variational principle for a special Cosserat rod

In this paper, we describe the nonlinear models of a rod in three-dimensional space based on the Cosserat theory. Using the pseudo-rigid body method and variational principle, we obtain the motion equations of a Cosserat rod including shear deformations.

Modeling and Adaptive Neural Network Control for a Soft Robotic Arm With Prescribed Motion Constraints

This paper presents a dynamic model and performance constraint control of a line-driven soft robotic arm.The dynamics model of the soft robotic arm is established by combining the screw theory and the Cosserat theory.The unmodeled dynamics of the system are considered,and an adaptive neural network controller is designed using the backstepping method and radial basis function neural network.The stability of the closed-loop system and the boundedness of the tracking error are verified using Lyapunov theory.The simulation results show that our approach is a good solution to the motion constraint problem of the line-driven soft robotic arm.

General Kinetostatic Modeling and Deformation Analysis of a Two-Module Rod-Driven Continuum Robot with Friction Considered

Continuum robots actuated by flexible rods have large potential applications,such as detection and operation tasks in confined environments,since the push and pull actuation of flexible rods withstand tension and compressive force,and increase the structure's rigidity.In this paper,a generalized kinetostatics model for multi-module and multi-segment continuum robots considering the effect of friction based on the Cosserat rod theory is established.Then,the model is applied to a two-module rod-driven continuum robot with winding ropes to analyze its deformation and load characteristics.Four different in-plane configurations under the external load term as S1,S2,C1,and C2 are defined.Taking a bending plane as an example,the tip deformation along thex-axis of these shapes is simulated and compared,which shows that the load capacity of C1 and C2 is generally larger than that of S1 and S2.Furthermore,the deformation experiments and simulations show that the maximum error ratio without external loads relative to the total length is no more than 3%,and it is no more than 4.7%under the external load.The established kinetostatics model is proven sufficient to accurately analyze the rod-driven continuum robot with the consideration of internal friction.

Parameterized level set method for structural topology optimization based on the Cosserat elasticity

When describing the mechanical behavior of some engineering materials,such as composites,grains,biological materials and cellular solids,the Cosserat continuum theory has more powerful capabilities compared with the classical Cauchy elasticity since an additional local rotation of point and its counterpart(couple stress)are considered in the Cosserat elasticity to represent the material microscale effects.In this paper,a parameterized level set topology optimization method is developed based on the Cosserat elasticity for the minimum compliance problem of the Cosserat solids.The influence of material characteristic length and Cosserat shear modulus on the optimized structure is investigated in detail.It can be found that the microstructural constants in the Cosserat elasticity have a significant impact on the optimized topology configurations.In addition,the minimum feature size and the geometric complexity of the optimized structure can be controlled implicitly by adjusting the parameters of the characteristic length and Cosserat shear modulus easily.Furthermore,the optimized structure obtained by the developed Cosserat elasticity based parameterized level set method will degenerate to the result by using the classical Cauchy elasticity based parameterized level set method when the Cosserat shear modulus approaches zero.