Self-adaptive one-dimensional nonlinear finite element method based on element energy projection method

The element energy projection （EEP） method for computation of super- convergent resulting in a one-dimensional finite element method （FEM） is successfully used to self-adaptive FEM analysis of various linear problems, based on which this paper presents a substantial extension of the whole set of technology to nonlinear problems. The main idea behind the technology transfer from linear analysis to nonlinear analysis is to use Newton＇s method to linearize nonlinear problems into a series of linear problems so that the EEP formulation and the corresponding adaptive strategy can be directly used without the need for specific super-convergence formulation for nonlinear FEM. As a re- sult, a unified and general self-adaptive algorithm for nonlinear FEM analysis is formed. The proposed algorithm is found to be able to produce satisfactory finite element results with accuracy satisfying the user-preset error tolerances by maximum norm anywhere on the mesh. Taking the nonlinear ordinary differential equation （ODE） of second-order as the model problem, this paper describes the related fundamental idea, the imple- mentation strategy, and the computational algorithm. Representative numerical exam- ples are given to show the efficiency, stability, versatility, and reliability of the proposed approach.

A Numerical Algorithm Based on Quadratic Finite Element for Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Time Fractional Thermal Diffusion Model

In this article,a high-order scheme,which is formulated by combining the quadratic finite element method in space with a second-order time discrete scheme,is developed for looking for the numerical solution of a two-dimensional nonlinear time fractional thermal diffusion model.The time Caputo fractional derivative is approximated by using the L2-1formula,the first-order derivative and nonlinear term are discretized by some second-order approximation formulas,and the quadratic finite element is used to approximate the spatial direction.The error accuracy O(h3+
t2)is obtained,which is verified by the numerical results.

Three-Dimensional Thermo-Elastic-Plastic Finite Element Method Modeling for Predicting Weld-Induced Residual Stresses and Distortions in Steel Stiffened-Plate Structures

The objective of the present paper is to develop nonlinear finite element method models for predicting the weld-induced initial deflection and residual stress of plating in steel stiffened-plate structures. For this purpose, three-dimensional thermo-elastic-plastic finite element method computations are performed with varying plate thickness and weld bead length (leg length) in welded plate panels, the latter being associated with weld heat input. The finite element models are verified by a comparison with experimental database which was obtained by the authors in separate studies with full scale measurements. It is concluded that the nonlinear finite element method models developed in the present paper are very accurate in terms of predicting the weld-induced initial imperfections of steel stiffened plate structures. Details of the numerical computations together with test database are documented.

Finite Element Analysis to Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Sloshing Problems

A two-dimensional nonlinear sloshing problem is analyzed by means of the fully nonlinear theory and time domain second order theory of water waves. Liquid sloshing in a rectangular container Subjected to a horizontal excitation is simulated by the finite element method. Comparisons between the two theories are made based on their numerical results. It is found that good agreement is obtained for the case of small amplitude oscillation and obvious differences occur for large amplitude excitation. Even though, the second order solution can still exhibit typical nonlinear features of nonlinear wave and can be used instead of the fully nonlinear theory.

Three-dimensional analysis of elastic stress distribution of indented ceramic surface by finite element method

The three-dimensional stress distributions in the area surrounding indentation pattern for three different materials, Al2O3, Si3N4 and SiC were analyzed by finite element method(FEM). Those theoretical results were also compared with the experimental ones by Rockwell hardness test. The effect of loading stress on the plastic deformation in specimens, surface was investigated on the assumption of shear strain energy theory by Huber-Mises when the materials were indented. The distributions of nomal stress, shear stress, and Mises stress were analysed with variations of loading conditions. It is clear that the analytical results for the stress distributions, the crack length and its density of probability are in good agreement with the experimental results.

Alternating Direction Finite Volume Element Methods for Three-Dimensional Parabolic Equations

This paper presents alternating direction finite volume element methods for three-dimensional parabolic partial differential equations and gives four computational schemes, one is analogous to Douglas finite difference scheme with second-order splitting error, the other two schemes have third-order splitting error, and the last one is an extended LOD scheme. The L2 norm and H1 semi-norm error estimates are obtained for the first scheme and second one, respectively. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of the methods.

Nonlinear finite-element-based structural system failure probability analysis methodology for gravity dams considering correlated failure modes

The structural system failure probability(SFP) is a valuable tool for evaluating the global safety level of concrete gravity dams.Traditional methods for estimating the failure probabilities are based on defined mathematical descriptions,namely,limit state functions of failure modes.Several problems are to be solved in the use of traditional methods for gravity dams.One is how to define the limit state function really reflecting the mechanical mechanism of the failure mode;another is how to understand the relationship among failure modes and enable the probability of the whole structure to be determined.Performing SFP analysis for a gravity dam system is a challenging task.This work proposes a novel nonlinear finite-element-based SFP analysis method for gravity dams.Firstly,reasonable nonlinear constitutive modes for dam concrete,concrete/rock interface and rock foundation are respectively introduced according to corresponding mechanical mechanisms.Meanwhile the response surface(RS) method is used to model limit state functions of main failure modes through the Monte Carlo(MC) simulation results of the dam-interface-foundation interaction finite element(FE) analysis.Secondly,a numerical SFP method is studied to compute the probabilities of several failure modes efficiently by simple matrix integration operations.Then,the nonlinear FE-based SFP analysis methodology for gravity dams considering correlated failure modes with the additional sensitivity analysis is proposed.Finally,a comprehensive computational platform for interfacing the proposed method with the open source FE code Code Aster is developed via a freely available MATLAB software tool(FERUM).This methodology is demonstrated by a case study of an existing gravity dam analysis,in which the dominant failure modes are identified,and the corresponding performance functions are established.Then,the dam failure probability of the structural system is obtained by the proposed method considering the correlation relationship of main failure modes on the basis of the mechanical mechanism analysis with the MC-FE simulations.

Parametric study on single shot peening by dimensional analysis method incorporated with finite element method

Shot peening is a widely used surface treatment method by generating compressive residual stress near the surface of metallic materials to increase fatigue life and re- sistance to corrosion fatigue, cracking, etc. Compressive re- sidual stress and dent profile are important factors to eval- uate the effectiveness of shot peening process. In this pa- per, the influence of dimensionless parameters on maximum compressive residual stress and maximum depth of the dent were investigated. Firstly, dimensionless relations of pro- cessing parameters that affect the maximum compressive residual stress and the maximum depth of the dent were de- duced by dimensional analysis method. Secondly, the in- fluence of each dimensionless parameter on dimensionless variables was investigated by the finite element method. Fur- thermore, related empirical formulas were given for each di- mensionless parameter based on the simulation results. Fi- nally, comparison was made and good agreement was found between the simulation results and the empirical formula, which shows that a useful approach is provided in this pa- per for analyzing the influence of each individual parameter.

Validation and application of three-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis with tetrahedron finite element meshed block

In the last decade, three dimensional discontin- uous deformation analyses （3D DDA） has attracted more and more attention of researchers and geotechnical engineers worldwide. The original DDA formulation utilizes a linear displacement function to describe the block movement and deformation, which would cause block expansion under rigid body rotation and thus limit its capability to model block de- formation. In this paper, 3D DDA is coupled with tetrahe- dron finite elements to tackle these two problems. Tetrahe- dron is the simplest in the 3D domain and makes it easy to implement automatic discretization, even for complex topol- ogy shape. Furthermore, element faces will remain planar and element edges will remain straight after deformation for tetrahedron finite elements and polyhedral contact detection schemes can be used directly. The matrices of equilibrium equations for this coupled method are given in detail and an effective contact searching algorithm is suggested. Valida- tion is conducted by comparing the results of the proposed coupled method with that of physical model tests using one of the most common failure modes, i.e., wedge failure. Most of the failure modes predicted by the coupled method agree with the physical model results except for 4 cases out of the total 65 cases. Finally, a complex rockslide example demon- strates the robustness and versatility of the coupled method.

NONLINEAR QUASI-CONFORMING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

The nonlinear quasi-conforming FEM is presented based on the basic concept of the quasi- -conforming finite element. First, the incremental principle of stationary potential energy is discussed, Then, the formulation process of the nonlinear quasi-conforming FEM is given. Lastly, two computational examples of shells are given.

A Brief Summary of Finite Element Method Applications to Nonlinear Wave-structure Interactions

We review recent advances in the finite element method (FEM) simulations of interactions between waves and structures. Our focus is on the potential theory with the fully nonlinear or second-order boundary condition. The present paper has six sections. A review of previous work on interactions between waves and ocean structures is presented in Section one. Section two gives the mathematical formulation. In Section three, the finite element discretization, mesh generation and the finite element linear system solution methods are described. Section four presents numerical methods including time marching schemes, computation of velocity, remeshing and smoothing techniques and numerical radiation conditions. The application of the FEM to the wave-structure interactions are presented in Section five followed by the concluding remarks in Section six.

Analytical Model of Nonlinear Semi-rigid Frames Using Finite Element Method

Performance-based design for a constructional steel frame in nonlinear-plastic region requires an improvement in order to achieve a reliable structural analysis.The need to explicitly consider the nonlinear behaviour of structures makes the numerical modelling approach much more favourable than expensive and potentially dangerous experimental work.The parameters considered in the analysis are not limited to the linear change of geometry and material yielding,but also include the effect of large deformations,geometrical imperfections,load eccentricities,residual stresses,strain-unloading,and the nonlinear boundary conditions.Such analysis requires the use of accurate mathematical modelling and effective numerical procedures for solving equations of equilibrium.With that in mind,this paper presents the mathematical formulations and finite element procedures of nonlinear inelastic steel frame analysis with quasi-static semi-rigid connections.Verification and validation of the developed analytical procedures are conducted and good agreements are obtained.It is an approach that enables the structural behaviour of constructional steel frames to be traced throughout the entire range of loading until failure.It also provides information on the derivation of the structural analysis by using finite element method.

An Efficient Multiple-Dimensional Finite Element Solution for Water Flow in Variably Saturated Soils

Multiple-dimensional water flow in variably saturated soils plays an important role in ecological systems such as irrigation and water uptake by plant roots; its quantitative description is usually based on the Richards＇ equation. Because of the nonlinearity of the Richards＇ equation and the complexity of natural soils, most practical simulations rely on numerical solutions with the nonlinearity solved by iterations. The commonly used iterations for solving the nonlinearity are Picard and Newton methods with the former converging at first-order rate and the later at second-order rate. A recent theoretical analysis by the authors, however, revealed that for solving the diffusive flow, the classical Picard method is actually a chord-Newton method, converging at a rate faster than first order; its linear convergence rate is due to the treatment of the gravity term. To improve computational efficiency, a similar chord-Newton method as for solving the diffusive term was proposed to solve the gravity term. Testing examples for one-dimensional flow showed significant improvement. The core of this method is to produce a diagonally dominant matrix in the linear system so as to improve the iteration-toiteration stability and hence the convergence. In this paper, we develop a similar method for multiple-dimensional flow and compare its performance with the classical Picard and Newton methods for water flow in soils characterised by a wide range of van Genuchten parameters.

ADI Finite Element Method for 2D Nonlinear Time Fractional Reaction-Subdiffusion Equation

In this paper, an alternating direction Galerkin finite element method is presented for solving 2D time fractional reaction sub-diffusion equation with nonlinear source term. Firstly, one order implicit-explicit method is used for time discretization, then Galerkin finite element method is adopted for spatial discretization and obtain a fully discrete linear system. Secondly, Galerkin alternating direction procedure for the system is derived by adding an extra term. Finally, the stability and convergence of the method are analyzed rigorously. Numerical results confirm the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.

Static and Dynamic Analysis of Mooring Lines by Nonlinear Finite Element Method

This study has focused on developing numerical procedures for the static and dynamic nonlinear analysis of mooring lines. A geometrically nonlinear finite element method using isoparametric cable element with two nodes is briefly presented on the basis of the total Lagrangian formulation. The static and dynamic equilibrium equations of mooring lines are established. An incremental-iterative method is used to determine the initial static equilibrium state of cable systems under the action of self weights, buoyancy and current. Also the Newmark method is used for dynamic nonlinear analysis of ocean cables. Numerical examples are presented to validate the present numerical method, and examine the effect of various parameters.

ANALYSES ON NONLINEAR COUPLING OF MAGNETO-THERMO-ELASTICITY OF FERROMAGNETIC THIN SHELL—II:FINITE ELEMENT MODELING AND APPLICATION

Based on the generalized vaxiational principle of magneto-thermo-elasticity of a ferromagnetic thin shell established （see, Analyses on nonlinear coupling of magneto-thermo- elasticity of ferromagnetic thin shell--I）, the present paper developed a finite element modeling for the mechanical-magneto-thermal multi-field coupling of a ferromagnetic thin shell. The numerical modeling composes of finite element equations for three sub-systems of magnetic, thermal and deformation fields, as well as iterative methods for nonlinearities of the geometrical large-deflection and the multi-field coupling of the ferromagnetic shell. As examples, the numerical simulations on magneto-elastic behaviors of a ferromagnetic cylindrical shell in an applied magnetic field, and magneto-thermo-elastic behaviors of the shell in applied magnetic and thermal fields are carried out. The results are in good agreement with the experimental ones.

Implementing the Node Based Smoothed Finite Element Method as User Element in Abaqus for Linear and Nonlinear Elasticity

In this paper,the node based smoothed-strain Abaqus user element(UEL)in the framework of finite element method is introduced.The basic idea behind of the node based smoothed finite element(NSFEM)is that finite element cells are divided into subcells and subcells construct the smoothing domain associated with each node of a finite element cell[Liu,Dai and Nguyen-Thoi(2007)].Therefore,the numerical integration is globally performed over smoothing domains.It is demonstrated that the proposed UEL retains all the advantages of the NSFEM,i.e.,upper bound solution,overly soft stiffness and free from locking in compressible and nearly-incompressible media.In this work,the constant strain triangular(CST)elements are used to construct node based smoothing domains,since any complex two dimensional domains can be discretized using CST elements.This additional challenge is successfully addressed in this paper.The efficacy and robustness of the proposed work is obtained by several benchmark problems in both linear and nonlinear elasticity.The developed UEL and the associated files can be downloaded from https://github.com/nsundar/NSFEM.

BUCKLING AND POST-BUCKLING OF PIEZOELECTRIC PLATES USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

The finite element equations considering the geometrical nonlinearity of piezoelectric smart structures are derived based on the total Lagrange method under the assumption of weak coupling between electricity and mechanics. Buckling and post-buckling of piezoelectric-plate with various boundary conditions are investigated. The calculated results show that piezoelectric effects and external voltage can hardly affect the buckling and post-bucking characteristics of piezoelectric-plate under uniaxial pressure while the buckling caused by displacement in-plane has much to do with the electric field.

A hybrid vertex-centered finite volume/element method for viscous incompressible flows on non-staggered unstructured meshes

This paper proposes a hybrid vertex-centered fi- nite volume/finite element method for solution of the two di- mensional （2D） incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on unstructured grids. An incremental pressure fractional step method is adopted to handle the velocity-pressure coupling. The velocity and the pressure are collocated at the node of the vertex-centered control volume which is formed by join- ing the centroid of cells sharing the common vertex. For the temporal integration of the momentum equations, an im- plicit second-order scheme is utilized to enhance the com- putational stability and eliminate the time step limit due to the diffusion term. The momentum equations are discretized by the vertex-centered finite volume method （FVM） and the pressure Poisson equation is solved by the Galerkin finite el- ement method （FEM）. The momentum interpolation is used to damp out the spurious pressure wiggles. The test case with analytical solutions demonstrates second-order accuracy of the current hybrid scheme in time and space for both veloc- ity and pressure. The classic test cases, the lid-driven cavity flow, the skew cavity flow and the backward-facing step flow, show that numerical results are in good agreement with the published benchmark solutions.