Wrinkling Analysis of Pre-Stressed Rectangular Membranes Using Element-Free Galerkin Method

In this study, element-free Galerkin method (EFGM), a meshless method, is proposed for wrinkling analysis of pre-stressed rectangular membranes. The mathematical model for studying wrinkling of pre-stressed membranes is derived by considering the bending stiffness, though it is negligible. Moving least-square approximation for deflection is constructed by considering three degrees of freedom per node. Essential boundary conditions are imposed using scaled transformation matrix method. Initially, compression-induced buckling of a homogeneous thin plate without pre-stress is solved to validate the method and then a pre-stressed homogeneous membrane is analyzed for both compression-induced and shear-induced wrinkling. Capabilities of the proposed method for membrane analysis are compared with that of the finite element method (FEM). Comparative study on wrinkling analysis using EFGM and different FEM element types in a commercial FEM package shows that in lower modes both methods show satisfying consistency in eigenvalues with respect to the total of number of nodes, while at higher modes EFGM shows better consistency than FEM. Further, the study is extended to wrinkling of nonhomogeneous membranes subjected to linearly-varying in-plane load. The results obtained from EFGM analysis is compared and found to be matching well with those available in the literature.

A New and Efficient Boundary Element-Free Method for 2-D Crack Problems

An efficient boundary element-free method is established for 2-D crack problems by combining a pair of boundary integral equations and the moving-least square approximation. The displacement boundary integral equation is collated on the on-crack boundary, and a new traction boundary integral equation is applied on the crack surface without the separate consideration of the upper and lower sides. In virtue of integration by parts, only singularity in order 1/r is involved in the integral kernels of new traction boundary integral equation, which brings convenience to the numerical implementation. Meanwhile, the integration by parts produces the new variables, the displacement density, and displacement dislocation density, and they are the coexisting unknowns along with the displacement and displacement dislocation. With the high-order continuity of the moving-least square approximation, these new variables are directly approximated with the nodal displacement or displacement dislocation, and the final system of equations contains the unknowns of nodal displacements and displacement dislocations only. The boundary element-free computational scheme is established, and several examples show the efficiency and flexibility of the proposed method.

The Element-Free Galerkin Method for the Unsteady Magnetohydrodynamic Flow in a Duct

In this paper, a meshless global element-free Galerkin method is given to obtain the numerical solutions of the coupled equations in the velocity and magnetic field for the unsteady magnetohydrodynamic flow through a straight duct with arbitrary electrical conductivity, that is, from perfectly conducting to insulated duct walls. The moving least-square approximation scheme is employed to construct shape functions. A time stepping method is employed to deal with the time derivatives. Non-uniform background grids and nodes are applied for numerical simulations. Computations are performed for different Hartmann numbers and wall conductivities at different time.

A New Meshless Simulated Method of Chloride Diffusion in Concrete

In this paper, θ-EFG(theθfamily of methods –Element Free Galerkin) method is developed and adopted for the simulation of chloride diffusion in concrete. Diffusion of chloride ions is generally assumed to follow the Fick’s second law and its solving process usually adopts finite element and finite difference method. θ-EFG is a meshless method which uses a moving least square approximation in space domain, then uses the θ family of methods in time domain. Some discussions and One dimensional examples are carried out. The computational results compared with the analytical solution are shown that the relative error norm that time=20years, chloride content of different depth and depth =45 mm, chloride content are about 0.5% and 1% respectively.

A modified method to determine the radius of influence domain in element-free Galerkin method

The radius of the influence domain is an important parameter in the weight function and plays an essential role in the accuracy of approximations. A modified method was proposed for determining the radius of influence domain. The modification is that the radius of influence domain is prescribed by the desired amount of support nodes for any point of interest. The advantages of this strategy are the regularity of matrix can be ensured in moving least square approximation and the algorithm is simple and practicable. The modified method was validated by thousands of patch tests in the case of regular and irregular node collocations and Timoshenko beam problem with using random node collocation. Results show that the proposed method performs more capability to handle the arbitrary node collocation than the pre-existing methods. This paper provides an alternative way to determine the radius of influence domain.