• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 1999

Superior performance of field consistent eight-node hexahedron element in static bending problems has already been demonstrated in literature. In this paper, its performance in free vibration is investigated. Free vibration frequencies of typical test problems have been computed using this element. The results establish its superior performance in free vibration, particularly in thin plate application and near incompressibility regimes, demonstrating that shear locking, Poisson's stiffening and volumetric locking have been eliminated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.245-256
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• 1994

A new axisymmetric crack model is proposed on the basis of p-version of the finite element method limited to theory of small scale yielding. To this end, axisymmetric stress element is formulated by integrals of Legendre polynomial which has hierarchical nature and orthogonality relationship. The virtual crack extension method has been adopted to calculate the stress intensity factors for 3-D axisymmetric cracked bodies where the potential energy change as a function of position along the crack front is calculated. The sensitivity with respect to the aspect ratio and Poisson locking has been tested to ascertain the robustness of p-version axisymmetric element. Also, the limit value that is an exact solution obtained by FEM when degree of freedom is infinite can be estimated using the extrapolation equation based on error prediction in energy norm. Numerical examples of thick-walled cylinder, axisymmetric crack in a round bar and internal part-thorough cracked pipes are tested with high precision.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.569-586
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• 1996

A new three-dimensional 8-node solid element with rotational degrees of freedom is presented. The proposed element is established by adding rotational degrees of freedom to the basic 8-node solid element. Thus the element has three translations and three rotational degrees of freedom per node. The corner rotations are introduced by transforming the hierarchical mid-edge displacements which are parabolic shape along an edge. The derivation of the element is based on the mixed variational principles in which the rotations are introduced as independent variables. Several types of non-conforming modes are selectively added to the displacement fields to obtain a series of improved elements. The resulting elements do not have the spurious zero energy modes and Poisson's ratio locking and pass patch test. Numerical examples show that presented non-conforming solid elements with rotational degrees of freedom show good performance even in the highly distorted meshes.