Studies on the Kinematics of Thin Shell Elements Based on the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation

Author(s):  
Per Hyldahl ◽  
Aki M. Mikkola ◽  
Ole Balling

The absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) is a finite element procedure that has been developed specifically for the dynamic analysis of large deformation problems. This study concerns compatibility problems in thin rectangular ANCF shell elements, which have been reported in a recent study revealing that these elements lead to a loss of inter-element connectivity when used to discretize non-rectangular structures. This study presents an easily implementable extension to the already used formulae that reduces the inter-element connectivity problems significantly. The new approach is based on using a set of element specific parameters that corresponds to the initial shape of the element. The ability of both the standard and the proposed methods to express curved structures are compared as well as their respective numerical performance.

Author(s):  
Aki Mikkola ◽  
Oleg Dmitrochenko ◽  
Marko Matikainen

In this study, a procedure to account for transverse shear deformation in the absolute nodal coordinate formulation is presented. In the absolute nodal coordinate formulation, shear deformation is usually defined by employing the slope vectors in the element transverse direction. This leads to the description of deformation modes that are, in practical problems, associated with high frequencies. These high frequencies, in turn, complicate the time integration procedure burdening numerical performance. In this study, the description of transverse shear deformation is accounted for in a two-dimensional beam element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation without the use of transverse slope vectors. In the introduced shear deformable beam element, slope vectors are replaced by vectors that describe the rotation of the beam cross-section. This procedure represents a simple enhancement that does not decrease the accuracy or numerical performance of elements based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. Numerical results are presented in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the introduced element in static and dynamic cases. The numerical results obtained using the introduced element agree with the results obtained using previously proposed shear deformable beam elements.


Author(s):  
Oleg Dmitrochenko ◽  
Aki Mikkola

This study is an extension of a newly introduced approach to account transverse shear deformation in absolute nodal coordinate formulation. In the formulation, shear deformation is usually defined by employing slope vectors in the element transverse direction. This leads to the description of deformation modes that, in practical problems, may be associated with high frequencies. These high frequencies, in turn, could complicate the time integration procedure, burdening numerical performance of shear deformable elements. In a recent study of this paper’s authors, the description of transverse shear deformation is accounted for in a two-dimensional beam element, based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation without the use of transverse slope vectors. In the introduced shear deformable beam element, slope vectors are replaced by vectors that describe the rotation of the beam cross-section. This procedure represents a simple enhancement that does not decrease the accuracy or numerical performance of elements based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. In this study, the approach to account for shear deformation without using transverse slopes is implemented for a thin rectangular plate element. In fact, two new plate elements are introduced: one within conventional finite element and another using the absolute nodal coordinates. Numerical results are presented in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the introduced plate element. The numerical results obtained using the introduced element agree with the results obtained using previously proposed shear deformable plate elements.


Author(s):  
K Dufva ◽  
A A Shabana

The absolute nodal coordinate formulation can be used in multibody system applications where the rotation and deformation within the finite element are large and where there is a need to account for geometrical non-linearities. In this formulation, the gradients of the global positions are used as nodal coordinates and no rotations are interpolated over the finite element. For thin plate and shell elements, the plane stress conditions can be applied and only gradients obtained by differentiation with respect to the element mid-surface spatial parameters need to be defined. This automatically reduces the number of element degrees of freedoms, eliminates the high frequencies due to the oscillations of some gradient components along the element thickness, and as a result makes the plate element computationally more efficient. In this paper, the performance of a thin plate element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation is investigated. The lower dimension plate element used in this investigation allows for an arbitrary rigid body displacement and large deformation within the element. The element leads to a constant mass matrix and zero Coriolis and centrifugal forces. The performance of the element is compared with other plate elements previously developed using the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. It is shown that the finite element used in this investigation is much more efficient when compared with previously proposed elements in the case of thin structures. Numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the formulation developed in this paper and the computational advantages gained from using the thin plate element. The thin plate element examined in this study can be efficiently used in many applications including modelling of paper materials, belt drives, rotor dynamics, and tyres.


Author(s):  
Aki Mikkola ◽  
Oleg Dmitrochenko ◽  
Marko Matikainen

In this study, a procedure to account for transverse shear deformation in the absolute nodal coordinate formulation is presented. In the absolute nodal coordinate formulation, shear deformation is usually defined by employing the slope vectors in the element transverse direction. This leads to the description of deformation modes that are, in practical problems, associated with high frequencies. These high frequencies, in turn, complicate the time integration procedure burdening numerical performance. In this study, the description of transverse shear deformation is accounted for in a two-dimensional beam element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation without the use of transverse slope vectors. In the introduced shear deformable beam element, slope vectors are replaced by vectors that describe the orientation of the beam cross-section. This procedure represents a simple enhancement that does not decrease the accuracy or numerical performance of elements based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. Numerical results are presented in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the introduced element in static and dynamic cases. The numerical results obtained using the introduced element agree with the results obtained using previously proposed shear deformable beam elements.


Author(s):  
Aki M. Mikkola ◽  
Ahmed A. Shabana

Abstract In this investigation, a method for the finite rotation and large deformation analysis of plates is presented. The method, which is based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation, leads to a plate element capable of representing exact rigid body motion. In this method, continuity conditions on all the displacement gradients are imposed. Therefore, non-smoothness of the plate mid-surface at the nodal points is avoided. By developing such a plate element, a constant mass matrix is obtained, and as a consequence, the centrifugal and Coriolis forces are equal to zero. Generalization of the formulation to the case of shell elements is discussed. Numerical results are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the proposed method in the large rotation and deformation analysis of plates and shells.


1999 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcello Campanelli ◽  
Marcello Berzeri ◽  
Ahmed A. Shabana

Many flexible multibody applications are characterized by high inertia forces and motion discontinuities. Because of these characteristics, problems can be encountered when large displacement finite element formulations are used in the simulation of flexible multibody systems. In this investigation, the performance of two different large displacement finite element formulations in the analysis of flexible multibody systems is investigated. These are the incremental corotational procedure proposed in an earlier article (Rankin, C. C., and Brogan, F. A., 1986, ASME J. Pressure Vessel Technol., 108, pp. 165–174) and the non-incremental absolute nodal coordinate formulation recently proposed (Shabana, A. A., 1998, Dynamics of Multibody Systems, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). It is demonstrated in this investigation that the limitation resulting from the use of the infinitesmal nodal rotations in the incremental corotational procedure can lead to simulation problems even when simple flexible multibody applications are considered. The absolute nodal coordinate formulation, on the other hand, does not employ infinitesimal or finite rotation coordinates and leads to a constant mass matrix. Despite the fact that the absolute nodal coordinate formulation leads to a non-linear expression for the elastic forces, the results presented in this study, surprisingly, demonstrate that such a formulation is efficient in static problems as compared to the incremental corotational procedure. The excellent performance of the absolute nodal coordinate formulation in static and dynamic problems can be attributed to the fact that such a formulation does not employ rotations and leads to exact representation of the rigid body motion of the finite element. [S1050-0472(00)00604-8]


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document