• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.105-118
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• 1992

Static performance was compared for the triangular plate elements through some numerical experiments. Four Kirchhoff elements and six Mindlin elements were selected for the comparison. Numerical tests were executed for the problems of rectangular plates with regular and distorted meshes, rhombic plates, circular plates and cantilever plates. Among the Kirchhoff 9 DOF elements, the discrete Kirchhoff theory element was the best. Element distortion and the aspect ratio were shown to have negligible effects on the displacement behaviour. The Specht's element resulted in better results than the Bergan's but it was sensitive to the aspect ratio. The element based on the hybrid stress method also resulted in good results but it assumed to be less reliable. Among the linear Mindlin elements, the discrete shear triangle was the best in view of reliability, accuracy and convergence. Since the thin plate behaviour of it was as good as the DKT element, it can be used effectively in the finite element code regardless of the thickness. As a quadratic Mindlin element, the MITC7 element resulted in best results in almost all cases considered. The results were at least as good as those of doubly refined meshes of linear elements.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.809-821
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• 2016

Concentric-tube continuum robots have formed an active field of research in robotics because of their manipulative exquisiteness essential to facilitate delicate surgical procedures. A set of concentric tubes with designed initial curvatures comprises a robot whose workspace can be controlled by relative translations and rotations of the tubes. Kinematic models have been widely used to predict the movement of the robot, but they are incapable of describing its time-dependent hysteretic behaviors accurately particularly when snapping occurs. To overcome this limitation, here we present a finite element modeling approach to investigating the dynamics of concentric-tube continuum robots. In our model, each tube is discretized using MITC shell elements and its transient responses are computed implicitly using the Bathe time integration method. Inter-tube contacts, the key actuation mechanism of this robot, are modeled using the constraint function method with contact damping to capture the hysteresis in robot trajectories. Performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by analyzing three specifications of two-tube robots including the one exhibiting snapping phenomena while the method can be applied to multiple-tube robots as well.