Elastodynamic Analysis of Towed Cable Systems by Global Nodal Position Vector Finite Element Method

Real-world groundwater modeling deals with heterogeneous and anisotropic aquifer systems. Numerical models, particularly the finite difference and finite element methods, are extensively used for modeling such a complex aquifer system. The finite difference method is an age-old straightforward approach, whereas the finite element method is more idealistic, relatively new, and has emerged as a popular approach. The unique advantages with the finite element method are (i) an irregular-shaped domain can be discretized into elements with a matching boundary, (ii) a node can be connected with the neighboring nodes in any direction. Thus, the finite element analysis allows water/solute to flow more freely toward the surrounding nodes along nodal links. On the other hand, the mathematical formulation of the finite element technique follows a set of rules step by step. Conventionally, this idealistic approach uses shape functions and integration techniques to develop element matrices, which, in turn, are assembled to form the global matrix. This conventional global matrix was found to be inconsistent with the basic partial differential equation representing the mass balance in a nodal domain as a control volume. As a result, the matrix solution, particularly for nonlinear problems (e.g., vadose zone flow, density dependent flow, and so forth) becomes unstable and computationally burdensome. To overcome the limitations of the conventional finite element method for real-world groundwater modeling, a new approach, called the direct-formulation finite element (DFFE) method, has been developed. In this approach, a two-dimensional model domain is discretized into triangular elements. Element matrices are formed directly based on flow principles and material properties of elements without using shape functions and integration process. The DFFE method is robust. The global matrix is consistent, and the solution is stable and efficient. The results obtained from this approach were found in a good agreement with that obtained from analytical and other widely used models.

The scientific basis of orthodontics is physics and Newtonian mechanics applied to the tooth-periodontal ligament-bone biologic system. The mechanical response of the periodontal ligament (PDL) to forces has a significant impact on bone remodelling and tooth movement. At the early stages, orthodontists mainly evaluated the PDL mechanical properties by in vitro experiments, which guided the use of forces in the orthodontic process. With the development of computers, finite element (FE) methods were increasingly used in the study of orthodontics. The phenomena and results of PDL mechanical tests are abstracted into constitutive equations. The identified constitutive equations are then implemented in finite element software. The finite element method could be used to simulate in vitro and in vivo experiments and predict the response of PDL under various complex working conditions. A visco-hyperelastic constitutive model is proposed and implemented in finite element technique based on prior static mechanical experiments of human PDL. Some complex experimental conditions are simulated to discuss the properties of the constitutive model.

It has been well known that exact closed-form solutions are not available for non-Levy-type plates. Thus, more accurate and efficient computational methods have been required for the plates subjected to arbitrary boundary conditions. This paper presents a frequency-domain spectral element model for the rectangular finite plate element. The spectral element model is developed by using two methods in combination: (1) the boundary splitting and (2) the super spectral element method in which the Kantorovich method-based finite strip element method and the frequency-domain waveguide method are utilized. The present spectral element model has nodes on four edges of the finite plate element, but no nodes inside. This can reduce the total number of degrees of freedom a lot to improve the computational efficiency significantly, when compared with the standard finite element method (FEM). The high solution accuracy and computational efficiency of the present spectral element model are evaluated by the comparison with exact solutions and the solutions by the standard FEM.

A numerical comparison of finite difference (FD) and finite element (FE) methods for a stochastic ordinary differential equation is made. The stochastic ordinary differential equation is turned into a set of ordinary differential equations by applying polynomial chaos, and the FD and FE methods are then implemented. The resulting numerical solutions are all non-negative. When orthogonal polynomials are used for either continuous or discrete processes, numerical experiments also show that the FE method is more accurate and efficient than the FD method.

On the combination of finite element and splitting-up methods in the solution of parabolic equations

The interaction between off-road tires and granular terrain has a great influence on the tractive performance of off-road vehicles. However, the finite element method or the discrete element method cannot effectively study the interaction between off-road tires and granular terrain. The three-dimensional combined finite element and discrete element method is applied to handle this problem. In this study, a calibrated finite element method–discrete element method model is established, in which the finite element model of off-road tire is validated by stiffness tests, while the discrete element model of gravel particles is validated by triaxial compression tests. The calibrated finite element method–discrete element method model can describe the structural mechanics of the off-road tire and the macroscopic mechanical properties of the gravel road. Tractive performance simulations of the off-road tire on gravel road under different slip conditions are performed with the commercial software LS-DYNA. The simulation results are basically corresponded with the soil-bin test results in terms of granular terrain deformation and tractive performance parameters versus the slip rates. Finally, the effects of tread pattern, wheel load, and tire inflation pressure on tractive performance of off-road tire on granular terrain are investigated. It indicates that the calibrated finite element method–discrete element method can be an effective tool for studying the tire–granular terrain interaction and predicting the tractive performance of off-road tire on granular terrain.

Finite element and boundary element contact stress analysis with remeshing technique

In this master's thesis work, finite element method limitations are investigated in the dynamic analysis of reinforced panels. The panel was modelled using different meshes in order to show that, depending on the element length (or the number of degree of freedom) used in the model, the model does not properly stand for the real structure. In order to assess experimentally the model, an aluminum reinforced panel was built and, through experimental methods, a modal analysis was carried out. The finite element modelling limits were tested and compared to experimental results regarding mid-frequencies. A comparison between finite element and spectral element methods was carried out for computational cost reduction purposes. Due to uncertainties of some model input parameters, a statistical variation was performed using Monte Carlo and Surface Response methods. Results have shown that, at high frequencies the finite element method is not appropriete for dynamic analysis due to high computational costs in high frequency and it is highly sensitive to small variations of the input parameters.

It is common knowledge that conventional finite element method (FEM) has intrinsic limitations in analyzing large deformation problems like high-velocity impact, explosion, etc. because of mesh distortion and tangling; while these problems can be easily avoided by the meshfree method (MM), the latter involves greater computation time. Therefore, in this article, in order to simultaneously utilize the respective advantages of the two methods, a coupled simulation method between both FEM and MM was employed to analyze the high-velocity impact on ductile metal pipe with polymer coating. The impacted area with large deformation was discretized by SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamics) particles, a classic meshfree model, and the remaining section was modeled by FEM meshes. By this method, the interfacial shear stresses between the coating and the substrate and the residual stresses beneath the contact points were studied, which would have referenced values in analyzing failure modes of components with similar composite structure. Then, the results were compared with sole FEM and MM too.

In many engineering problems, the meshfree methods (MMs) have been dynamically projected and increasingly advanced in order to overwhelm some hitches in the predictable numerical methods. Over the past three decades in many different application area, MMs have found their way ranging from solid mechanics analysis, fluid problems, vibration analysis, heat transfer and optimization to numerical solutions of all kinds of (partial) differential equations. As every technique has shortcomings, the meshfree method also has drawbacks like higher computational cost and imposition of boundary condition which can be overruled by coupling it with the finite element method (FEM). In the past two decades, coupled MMs and FEM have appeared into a new session of computational methods with significant achievement. In addition, a noteworthy amount of growth has been made in addressing the major deficiencies that were present in the conventional methods and MMs at the premature phases. The objective of the present work is to provide a comprehensive review of various coupling techniques used for interface elements of MMs and FEM and general discussion on shape function formulation of FE and element free Galerkin method (EFGM). Key contribution of coupling techniques for coupled EFGM and FEM to structure mechanics application as primary concern.

Chapter 11 - Mixed finite element–computational fluid dynamics method for nonlinear fluid–solid interactions

The performance of electrical machines is largely dictated by the action of current and flux in the core length. The field in a cross-section obeys Poisson's equation and approximate solutions have been obtained by finite difference and element methods. The finite difference method requires a large number of nodes and is slow to converge as permeability is variable. The finite element method is more flexible being more readily fitted to iron-air boundaries and has better convergence. However, it is difficult to formulate a legitimate variational formulation for transient conditions in the presence of dissipation. Here, discrete equations are formed by applying Ampere's circuital law around each node. Careful choice of contour lines give a current distribution superior to that obtained with finite elements. Fast convergence is obtained and the method is applicable under transient conditions.

We consider three types of subdiffusion models, namely single-term, multi-term and distributed order fractional diffusion equations, for which the maximum-principle holds and which, in particular, preserve nonnegativity. Hence the solution is nonnegative for nonnegative initial data. Following earlier work on the heat equation, our purpose is to study whether this property is inherited by certain spatially semidiscrete and fully discrete piecewise linear finite element methods, including the standard Galerkin method, the lumped mass method and the finite volume element method. It is shown that, as for the heat equation, when the mass matrix is nondiagonal, nonnegativity is not preserved for small time or time-step, but may reappear after a positivity threshold. For the lumped mass method nonnegativity is preserved if and only if the triangulation in the finite element space is of Delaunay type. Numerical experiments illustrate and complement the theoretical results.

Purpose – A variety of meshless methods have been developed in the last 20 years with an intention to solve practical engineering problems, but are limited to small academic problems due to associated high computational cost as compared to the standard finite element methods (FEM). The purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient and accurate algorithms based on meshless methods for the solution of problems involving both material and geometrical nonlinearities. Design/methodology/approach – A parallel two-dimensional linear elastic computer code is presented for a maximum entropy basis functions based meshless method. The two-dimensional algorithm is subsequently extended to three-dimensional adaptive nonlinear and three-dimensional parallel nonlinear adaptively coupled finite element, meshless method cases. The Prandtl-Reuss constitutive model is used to model elasto-plasticity and total Lagrangian formulations are used to model finite deformation. Furthermore, Zienkiewicz and Zhu and Chung and Belytschko error estimation procedure are used in the FE and meshless regions of the problem domain, respectively. The message passing interface library and open-source software packages, METIS and MUltifrontal Massively Parallel Solver are used for the high performance computation. Findings – Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the correct implementation and performance of the parallel algorithms. The agreement between the numerical and analytical results in the case of linear elastic example is excellent. For the nonlinear problems load-displacement curve are compared with the reference FEM and found in a very good agreement. As compared to the FEM, no volumetric locking was observed in the case of meshless method. Furthermore, it is shown that increasing the number of processors up to a given number improve the performance of parallel algorithms in term of simulation time, speedup and efficiency. Originality/value – Problems involving both material and geometrical nonlinearities are of practical importance in many engineering applications, e.g. geomechanics, metal forming and biomechanics. A family of parallel algorithms has been developed in this paper for these problems using adaptively coupled finite element, meshless method (based on maximum entropy basis functions) for distributed memory computer architectures.

Thermally induced vibration (TIV) of composite laminate subjected to suddenly applied heating is studied using finite element (FE) method in this paper. Some Python programs written by the authors are used to process the data of the analysis flow, and complete the pre- and post-process of FE models used in the four analyses. An equivalent displacement method is proposed to calculate equivalent temperature load. Dynamic responses of six composite laminates with different sizes are analyzed with solid FE models and shell FE models. The results gotten by FE method are in close proximity to that gotten by classic theory and shear theory under certain conditions. It is proved that the TIV analysis method proposed in this paper is reliable and efficient. The TIV analysis with FE method based on equivalent displacement method can solve the dynamic response of a structure due to sudden changes of temperature or suddenly applied heating.