Advanced Finite Element Methods

Dr.-Ing. Roland Wchner Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Manfred Bischoff

Lehrstuhl fr Statik Technische Universitt Mnchen Prof. Dr.-Ing. K.-U. Bletzinger

Summer Term 2007

This document contains parts of the material for the class on Advanced Finite Element Methods taught at the Technische Universitt Mnchen (TUM) during summer term 2007 within the Master Program on Computational Mechanics (CoMe.TUM). Parts of its contents have been translated from the manuscript Finite Elemente fr Tragwerksberechnungen, by Ekkehard Ramm, Institut fr Baustatik, Universitt Stuttgart. His permission to use this material is gratefully acknowledged. In Section 1 a straight linear Timoshenko beam finite element is briefly described. It serves as a simple reference for the discussion of locking problems and concepts in element technology in the subsequent chapters. For the same purpose the formulation of Reissner-Mindlin type plate elements is reviewed in Section 2. Section 3 deals with the problem of locking which is especially pronounced for finite elements based on the virtual work principle (standard Galerkin or displacement elements). The phenomenon is described using a mechanical, a numerical and a mathematical approach to provide insight into its origins from different perspectives. Detailed explanations are given for transverse shear locking, volumetric locking, shear locking and membrane locking. As a prerequisite for the derivation of alternative element formulations, the topic of variational methods is treated in Section 4. After providing the basic techniques of variational calculus and proving the equivalence of weak and strong form for a simple, one-dimensional example, some multifield variational principles for general linear elasticity problems are derived. Section 5 contains the derivations of some of the most popular finite element formulations to date, both in commercial and scientific codes, for solid and plate finite elements. In particular, these are the Hybrid Stress Method, the Enhanced Assumed Strain (EAS) Method, and the Assumed Natural Strain (ANS) Method. Finally, Section 6 provides some basic insight into error estimation and adaptivity. A recovery based Z2-type error estimator based on super convergent patch recovery is derived in detail and some comments are made on various strategies for adaptive mesh refinement.

Contents 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 5 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 6 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.5 A Linear, Straight Timoshenko Beam Element General Remarks Basic Equations of a Straight Beam (Two-Dimensional) A Linear Timoshenko Beam Finite Element A Shear Deformable Plate Element General Remarks Basic Equations of a Shear Deformable Plate Model A Linear Reissner/Mindlin Plate Element Locking General Remarks What is Locking? The Patch Test Locking Effects in Beam, Plate, Shell and Solid Elements Variational Formulation of Finite Elements General Remarks Variational Calculus Functionals for Linear Elasticity Problems Alternative Finite Element Formulations General Remarks Stress-Displacement Formulation, Hybrid Stress Elements A Four-Node Hybrid Stress Element The Enhanced Assumed Strain Method A Four-Node EAS Element for 2D Solids The Assumed Natural Strain Method A Four-Node ANS Plate Element Closing Remarks Error Estimation and Adaptivity General Remarks Some Preliminaries from Functional Analysis Error Estimation Adaptivity