• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.295-305
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• 2023

This study introduces a smoothed finite-element implementation into the phase-field framework. In recent years, the phase-field method has recieved considerable attention in crack initiation and propagation since the method needs no further treatment to express the crack growth path. In the phase-field method, high strain-energy accuracy is needed to capture the complex crack growth path; thus, it is obtained in the framework of the smoothed finite-element method. The salient feature of the smoothed finite-element method is that the finite element cells are divided into sub-cells and each sub-cell is rebuilt as a smoothing domain where smoothed strain energy is calculated. An adaptive quadtree refinement is also employed in the present framework to avoid the computational burden. Numerical experiments are performed to investigate the performance of the proposed approach, compared with that of the finite-element method and the reference solutions.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.159-169
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• 2019

This work presents the three-dimensional extended strain smoothing approach in the framework of finite element method, so-called smoothed finite element method (S-FEM) for quasi-incompressible hyperelastic materials undergoing the large deformations. The proposed method is known that the incompressible limits, such as over-estimation of stiffness and distorted mesh sensitivity, can be overcome in two dimensions. Therefore, in this paper, the idea of Cell-based, Edge-based and Node-based strain smoothing approaches is extended to three-dimensions. The construction of subcells and smoothing domains for each methods are explained. The smoothed strain-displacement matrix and the stiffness matrix are obtained on each smoothing domain in the same manner with two-dimensional S-FEM. Various numerical tests are studied to demonstrate the validity and accuracy of 3D-S-FEM. The obtained results are compared with analytical solutions to express the efficacy of the methods.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.241-259
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• 2013

This paper presents the optimum load-speed diagram evaluation for a linear micromotor, including multitude cantilever piezoelectric bimorphs, briefly. Each microbeam in the mechanism can be actuated in both axial and flexural modes simultaneously. For this design, we consider quasi-static and linear conditions, and a relatively new numerical method called the smoothed finite element method (S-FEM) is introduced here. For this purpose, after finding an optimum volume fraction for piezoelectric layers through a standard numerical method such as quadratic finite element method, the relevant load-speed curves of the optimized micromotor are examined and compared by deterministic topology optimization (DTO) design. In this regard, to avoid the overly stiff behavior in FEM modeling, a numerical method known as the cell-based smoothed finite element method (CS-FEM, as a branch of S-FEM) is applied for our DTO problem. The topology optimization procedure to find the optimal design is implemented using a solid isotropic material with a penalization (SIMP) approximation and a method of moving asymptotes (MMA) optimizer. Because of the higher efficiency and accuracy of S-FEMs with respect to standard FEMs, the main micromotor characteristics of our final DTO design using a softer CS-FEM are substantially improved.