• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.1499-1506
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• 2001

Various transition elements are used in general for the effective finite element analysis of complicated mechanical structures. In this paper, a solid-to-beam transition finite element, which can b e used for connecting a C1-continuity beam element to a continuum solid element, is proposed. The shape functions of the transition finite element are derived to meet the compatibility condition, and a transition element equation is formulated by the conventional finite element procedure. In order to show the effectiveness and convergence characteristics of the proposed transition element, numerical tests are performed for various examples. As a result of this study, following conclusions are obtained. (1) The proposed transition element, which meets the compatibility of the primary variables, exhibits excellent accuracy. (2) In case of using the proposed transition element, the number of nodes in the finite element model may be considerably reduced and the model construction becomes more convenient. (3) This formulation method can be applied to the usage of higher order elements.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.659-683
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• 2014

The static analysis of structures with arbitrary cross-section geometry and material lamination via a refined one-dimensional (1D) approach is presented in this paper. Higher-order 1D models with a variable order of expansion for the displacement field are developed on the basis of Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF). Classical Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theories are obtained as particular cases of the first-order model. Numerical results of displacement, strain and stress are provided by using the finite element method (FEM) along the longitudinal direction for different configurations in excellent agreement with three-dimensional (3D) finite element solutions. In particular, a layered thin-walled cylinder is considered as first assessment with a laminated conventional cross-section. An atherosclerotic plaque is introduced as a typical structure with arbitrary cross-section geometry and studied for both the homogeneous and nonhomogeneous material cases through the 1D variable kinematic models. The analyses highlight limitations of classical beam theories and the importance of higher-order terms in accurately detecting in-plane cross-section deformation without introducing additional numerical problems. Comparisons with 3D finite element solutions prove that 1D CUF provides remarkable three-dimensional accuracy in the analysis of even short and nonhomogeneous structures with arbitrary geometry through a significant reduction in computational cost.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.2
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• pp.199-211
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• 2024

The loading capacity of engineering structures/components reduces after the initiation and propagation of crack eventually leads to the final failure. Hence, it becomes essential to deal with the crack and its effects at the design and simulation stages itself, by detecting the prone area of the fracture. The phase-field (PF) method has been accepted widely in simulating fracture problems in complex geometries. However, most of the PF methods are formulated with second order continuity theoryinvolving C⁰ continuity. In the present study, PF method based on fourth-order (i.e., higher order) theory, maintaining C¹ continuity has been proposed for ductile fracture simulation. The formulation includes fourth-order derivative terms of phase field variable, varying between 0 and 1. Applications of fourth-order PF theory to ductile fracture simulation resulted in novelty in this area. The proposed formulation is numerically solved using a two-dimensional finite element (FE) framework in 3-layered manner system. The solutions thus obtained from the proposed fourth order theory for different benchmark problems portray the improvement in the accuracy of the numerical results and are well matched with experimental results available in the literature. These results are also compared with second-order PF theory and a comparison study demonstrated the robustness of the proposed model in capturing ductile behaviour close to experimental observations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.629-639
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• 2018

In this paper, the vibroacoustic responses of baffled laminated composite sandwich flat panel structure under the influence of harmonic excitation are studied numerically using a novel higher-order coupled finite-boundary element model. A numerical scheme for the vibrating plate has been developed in the frame work of the higher-order mid-plane kinematics and the eigen frequencies are obtained by employing suitable finite element steps. The acoustic responses are then computed by solving the Helmholtz wave equation using boundary element method coupled with the structural finite elements. The proposed scheme has been implemented via an own MATLAB base code to compute the desired responses. The validity of the present model is established from the conformance of the current natural frequencies and the radiated sound power with the available benchmark solutions. The model is further utilized to scrutinize the influence of core-to-face thickness ratio, modular ratio, lamination scheme and the support condition on the sound radiation characteristics of the vibrating sandwich flats panel. It can be concluded that the present scheme is not only accurate but also efficient and simple in providing solutions of the coupled vibroacoustic response of laminated composite sandwich plates.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.19 no.2 s.72
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• pp.151-160
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• 2006

In this study, we propose a new efficient 2-noded hybrid-mixed element for curved beam vibrationshaving a uniform and non-uniform cross section. The present element considering transverse shear strain is based on Hellinger-Reissner variational principle and introduces additional nodeless degrees for displacement field interpolation in order to enhance the numerical performance. The stress parameters are eliminated by the stationary condition and then the nodeless degrees are condensed out by the Guyan reduction. In the performance evaluation process of the present field-consistent higher-order element, we carefully examine the effects of field consistency and the role of higher-order interpolation functions on the hybrid-mixed formulation. Several benchmark tests confirm e superior behavior of the present hybrid-mixed element for curved beam vibrations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2022

The free and forced nonlinear dynamic behaviors of Porous Functionally Graded Material (PFGM) plates are examined by means of a High-Order Implicit Algorithm (HOIA). The formulation is developed using the Third-order Shear Deformation Theory (TSDT). Unlike previous works, the formulation is written without resorting to any homogenization technique neither rule of mixture nor considering FGM as a laminated composite, and the distribution of the porosity is assumed to be gradually variable through the thickness of the PFGM plates. Using the Hamilton principle, we establish the governing equations of motion. The Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to compute approximations of the resulting equations; FEM is adopted using a four-node quadrilateral finite element with seven Degrees Of Freedom (DOF) per node. Nonlinear equations are solved by a HOIA. The accuracy and the performance of the proposed approach are verified by presenting comparisons with literature results for vibration natural frequencies and dynamic response of PFGM plates under external loading. The influences of porosity volume fraction, porosity distribution, slenderness ratio and other parameters on the vibrations of PFGM plate are explored. The results demonstrate the significant impact of different physical and geometrical parameters on the vibration behavior of the PFGM plate.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.587-614
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• 2014

In recent years the interest in online monitoring of lightweight structures with ultrasonic guided waves is steadily growing. Especially the aircraft industry is a driving force in the development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. In order to optimally design SHM systems powerful and efficient numerical simulation tools to predict the behaviour of ultrasonic elastic waves in thin-walled structures are required. It has been shown that in real industrial applications, such as airplane wings or fuselages, conventional linear and quadratic pure displacement finite elements commonly used to model ultrasonic elastic waves quickly reach their limits. The required mesh density, to obtain good quality solutions, results in enormous computational costs when solving the wave propagation problem in the time domain. To resolve this problem different possibilities are available. Analytical methods and higher order finite element method approaches (HO-FEM), like p-FEM, spectral elements, spectral analysis and isogeometric analysis, are among them. Although analytical approaches offer fast and accurate results, they are limited to rather simple geometries. On the other hand, the application of higher order finite element schemes is a computationally demanding task. The drawbacks of both methods can be circumvented if regions of complex geometry are modelled using a HO-FEM approach while the response of the remaining structure is computed utilizing an analytical approach. The objective of the paper is to present an efficient method to couple different HO-FEM schemes with an analytical description of an undisturbed region. Using this hybrid formulation the numerical effort can be drastically reduced. The functionality of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by studying the propagation of ultrasonic guided waves in plates, excited by a piezoelectric patch actuator. The actuator is modelled utilizing higher order coupled field finite elements, whereas the homogenous, isotropic plate is described analytically. The results of this "semi-analytical" approach highlight the opportunities to reduce the numerical effort if closed-form solutions are partially available.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.296-302
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• 2001

In this paper, the vector finite elements are adopted to calculate eigenvalues of RF and microwave components. Simulation results show that spurious are completely avoided because of the divergence free nature of the vector elements. This paper seeks to extend these low-order elements to higher orders to improve the accuracy of numerical solution. Investigation of numerical results for a rectangular waveguide was provided. A vector finite element program was implemented to allow propagation constants and electric field distributions to be directly computed in the rectangular and circular waveguides which are partially filled with the dielectric.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.4
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• pp.427-437
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• 2019

In this study, an alternative solution procedure presented by using variational methods for analysis of shear deformable functionally graded material (FGM) beams with mixed formulation. By using the advantages of $G{\hat{a}}teaux$ differential approaches, a refined complex general functional and boundary conditions which comprises seven independent variables such as displacement, rotation, bending moment and higher-order bending moment, shear force and higher-order shear force, is derived for general thick-thin FGM beams via shear deformation beam theories. The mixed-finite element method (FEM) is employed to obtain a beam element which have a 2-nodes and total fourteen degrees-of-freedoms. A computer program is written to execute the analyses for the present study. The numerical results of analyses obtained for different boundary conditions are presented and compared with results available in the literature.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2017

A $C^0$ FE model developed based on an efficient higher order zigzag theory is used for hygrothermal analysis of laminated composite plates. The $C^0$ FE model satisfies the inter-laminar shear stress continuity at the interfaces and zero transverse shear stress conditions at plate top and bottom. In this model the first derivatives of transverse displacement have been treated as independent variables to circumvent the problem of $C^1$ continuity associated with the above plate theory. In the present theory the above mentioned $C^0$ continuity of the present element is compensated in the stiffness matrix formulation by using penalty parameter approach. In order to avoid stress oscillations observed in the displacement based finite element, the stress field derived from temperature/moisture fields (initial strains) must be consistent with total strain field. Special steps are introduced by field consistent approach (e.g., sampling at gauss points) to compensate this problem. A nine noded $C^0$ continuous isoparametric element is used in the proposed FE model. Comparison of present numerical results with other existing solutions shows that the proposed FE model is efficient, accurate and free of locking.