Cracking analysis of fracture mechanics by the finite element method of lines(FEMOL)

The Finite Element Method of Lines （FEMOL） is a semi-analytic approach and takes a position between FEM and analytic methods. First, FEMOL in Fracture Mechanics is presented in detail. Then, the method is applied to a set of examples such as edge-crack plate, the central-crack plate, the plate with cracks emanating from a hole under tensile or under combination loads of tensile and bending. Their dimensionless stress distribution, the stress intensify factor （SIF） and crack opening displacement （COD） are obtained, and comparison with known solutions by other methods are reported. It is found that a good accuracy is achieved by FEMOL. The method is successfully modified to remarkably increase the accuracy and reduce convergence difficulties. So it is a very useful and new tool in studying fracture mechanics problems.

Determination of the Minimum Testing Time for Wireline Formation Testing with the Finite Element Method

The wireline formation tester （WFT） is an important tool for formation evaluation, such as calculating the formation pressure and permeability, identifying the fluid type, and determining the interface between oil and water. However, in a low porosity and low permeability formation, the supercharge pressure effect exists, since the mudcake has a poor sealing ability. The mudcake cannot isolate the hydrostatic pressure of the formation around the borehole and the mud seeps into the formations, leading to inaccurate formation pressure measurement. At the same time, the tool can be easily stuck in the low porosity/low permeability formation due to the long waiting and testing time. We present a method for determining the minimum testing time for the wireline formation tester. The pressure distribution of the mudcake and the formation were respectively calculated with the finite element method （FEM）. The radius of the influence of mud pressure was also computed, and the minimum testing time in low porosity/low permeability formations was determined within a range of values for different formation permeabilities. The determination of the minimum testing time ensures an accurate formation pressure measurement and minimizes possible accidents due to long waiting and testing time.

Feature analysis of acoustic emission sources for rail crack detection by the finite element method

The safety of rail is very important for the development of high speed railway, and it is necessary to investigate the features of inner cracks in rail. In order to obtain the features of Acoustic Emission （AE） sources of inner cracks in rail, AE sources with different types, depths and propagation distances are examined for crack in rail. The finite element method is utilized to model the rail with cracks and the results of experiment demonstrate the effectiveness of this model. Wavelet transform and Rayleigh-Lamb equations are utilized to extract the features of crack AE sources. The results illustrate that the intensity ratio among AE modes can identify the AE source types and the AE sources with different frequencies in rail. There are uniform AE mode features existing in the AE signals from AE sources in rail web, however AE signals from AE sources in rail head and rail base have the complex and unstable AE modes. Different AE source types have the different propagation features in rail. It is helpful to understand the rail cracks and detect the rail cracks based on the AE technique.

A NEW METHOD FOR SOLUTION OF 3D ELASTIC-PLASTIC FRICTIONAL CONTACT PROBLEMS

The solution of 3 D elastic-plastic frictional contact problems belongs to the un specified boundary problems where the interaction between two kinds of nonlinearities should occur. Considering the difficulties for the solution of 3 D frictional contact problems, the key part is the determination of the tangential slip states at the contact points, and a great amount of computing work is needed for a high accuracy result. A new method based on a combination of programming and iteration methods, which are respectively known as two main kinds of methods for contact analysis, was put forward to deal with 3 D elastic-plastic contact problems. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm illustrated here.

Analysis on the Magnetic Shielding Effectiveness of DC Current Comparator

There are magnetic interference problems in the applications of DC current comparator. Analysis on the magnetic effectiveness which is applied by the external magnetic field is introduced in this paper. The effectiveness is proved by the actual results which are compared with the magnetic- circuit method and the finite element method. In addition, the reference comment is given which can be used in the practical work of DC current comparator shield design.

THE PARTIAL PROJECTION METHOD IN THE FINITE ELEMENT DISCRETIZATION OF THE REISSNER-MINDLIN PLATE MODEL

In the paper a linear combination of both the standard mixed formulation and the displacement one of the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory is used to enhance stability of the former and to remove ''locking'' of the later. For this new stabilized formulation, a unified approach to convergence analysis is presented for a wide spectrum of finite element spaces. As long as the rotation space is appropriately enriched, the formulation is convergent for the finite element spaces of sufficiently high order. Optimal-order error estimates with constants independent of the plate thickness are proved for the various lower order methods of this kind.

DYNAMICS OF FLEXIBLE MULTIBODY SYSTEMS WITH TREE TOPOLOGIES

The dynamic equations of flexible multibody systems with tree topological configuration are de- rived by using the Jourdain's principle.The independent joint coordinates are introduced to describe the large displacements of the bodies,and the modal coordinates are used to describe small deformations of flexible bodies based on the consistent mass finite element method and normal vibration mode analysis.The mini- mum differential equations are developed,which are compatible with the equations of multi-rigid body sys- tems or structural dynamics.The stiff problem in the numerical integration is thus alleviated effectively.The method used in this paper can be extended to deal with systems with other topological configurations. Finally,the validity and feasibility of the presented mathematical model are demonstrated by a numerical ex- ample of a manipulator with two elastic links.

SUPERCONVERGENCE OF GRADIENT RECOVERY SCHEMES ON GRADED MESHES FOR CORNER SINGULARITIES

For the linear finite element solution to the Poisson equation, we show that supercon- vergence exists for a type of graded meshes for corner singularities in polygonal domains. In particular, we prove that the L^2-projection from the piecewise constant field △↓UN to the continuous and piecewise linear finite element space gives a better approximation of △↓U in the Hi-norm. In contrast to the existing superconvergence results, we do not assume high regularity of the exact solution.