• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.155-163
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• 1996

In the analysis of thin elastic structures such as beam-, arch-, plate- and shell-like bodies using standard finite element schemes, there may occur deterioration of approximation quality owing to shear and membrane lockings. Moreover, a recognition of this phenomenon in the computed numerical results is not easy without comparing with other available reference numerical data. This paper analyses briefly this phenomenon and introduces one inexpensive but reliable a posteriori locking detection method. Numerical examples are given supporting the theoretical results.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.3 s.70
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• pp.295-303
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• 2004

In this paper, an improved four-node Reissner-Mindlin plate-bending element with enhanced assumed strain field is presented for the analysis of isotropic and laminated composite plates. To avoid the shear locking and spurious zero energy modes, the transverse shear behavior is improved by the addition of a new enhanced shear strain based on the incompatible displacement mode approach and bubble function. The "standard" enhanced strain fields (Andelfinger and Ramm, 1993) are also employed to improve the in-plane behaviors of the plate elements. The four-node quadrilateral element derived using the first-order shear deformation theory is designated as "14EASP". Several applications are investigated to assess the features and the performances of the proposed element. The results are compared with other finite element solutions and analytical solutions. Numerical examples show that the element is stable, invariant, passes the patch test, and yields good results especially in highly distorted regimes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.147-158
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• 2004

For stiffened plates composed of composite materials, many researchers have used a finite element method which connected isoparametric plate elements and beam elements. However, the finite element method is difficult to reflect local behavior of stiffener because beam elements are transferred stiffness for nodal point of plate elements, especially the application is limited in case of laminated composite structures. In this paper, for analysis of laminated composite stiffened plates, 3D shell elements for stiffener and plate are employed. Reissner-Mindlin's first order shear deformation theory is considered in this study. But when thickness will be thin, isoparamatric plate bending element based on the theory of Reissner-Mindlin is generated by transverse shear locking. To eliminate the shear locking and virtual zero energy mode, the substitute shear strain field is used. A deflection distribution is investigated for simple supported rectangular and skew stiffened laminated composite plates with arbitrary orientation stiffener as not only variation of slenderness and aspect ratio of the plate but also variation of skew angle of skew stiffened plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.3
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• pp.283-296
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• 2023

Free-vibration and buckling analyses of plate problems are investigated with the aid of the strain gradient notation finite element method (SGN-FEM). As SGN-FEM employs physically interpretable polynomials in developing finite elements, parasitic shear sources, which are the cause of shear locking, can be precisely identified and subsequently eliminated. This allows two mutually complementary objectives to be defined in this work, namely, evaluate the efficiency of free-vibration and buckling results provided by corrected models, and study the severity of parasitic shear effects on plate models performance. Parasitic shear are flexural terms erroneously present in shear strain polynomials. It is reviewed here that six parasitic shear terms arise during the formulation of the four-node Mindlin plate element. Two parasitic shear terms have been identified in the in-plane shear strain polynomial while other two have been identified in each of the transverse shear strain polynomials. The element is corrected a-priori, i.e., during development, by simply removing the spurious terms from the shear strain polynomials. The computational implementation of the element in its two versions, namely, containing the parasitic shear terms (PS) and corrected for parasitic shear (SG), allows for assessments of the accuracy of results and of the deleterious effects of parasitic shear in free vibration and buckling analyses. This assessment of the parasitic shear effects is a novelty of this work. Validation of the SG model is done comparing its results with analytical results and results provided by other numerical procedures. Analyses are performed for square plates with different thickness-to-length ratios and boundary conditions. Results for thin plates provided by the PS model do not converge to the correct solutions, which indicates that parasitic shear must be eliminated. That is, analysts should not rely on refinement alone. For thick plates, PS model results can be considered acceptable as deleterious effects are really critical in thin plates. On the other hand, results provided by the SG model converge well for both thin and thick plates. The effectiveness of the SG model is established via high-accuracy results obtained in several examples. It is concluded that corrected SGN-FEM models are efficient alternatives for free-vibration and buckling analysis of Mindlin plate problems, and that precise elimination of parasitic shear is a requirement for sound analyses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.503-526
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• 2016

In-plane and out-of-plane free vibration analysis of Timoshenko curved beams is addressed based on the isogeometric method, and an effective scheme to avoid numerical locking in both of the two patterns is proposed in this paper. The isogeometric computational model takes into account the effects of shear deformation, rotary inertia and axis extensibility of curved beams, and is applicable for uniform circular beams, and more complicated variable curvature and cross-section beams as illustrated by numerical examples. Meanwhile, it is shown that, the $C^{p-1}$-continuous NURBS elements remarkably have higher accuracy than the finite elements with the same number of degrees of freedom. Nevertheless, for in-plane or out-of-plane vibration analysis of Timoshenko curved beams, the NURBS-based isogeometric method also exhibits locking effect to some extent. To eliminate numerical locking, the selective reduced one-point integration and $\bar{B}$ projection element based on stiffness ratio is devised to achieve locking free analysis for in-plane and out-of-plane models, respectively. The suggested integral schemes for moderately slender models obtain accurate results in both dominated and non-dominated regions of locking effect. Moreover, this strategy is effective for beam structures with different slenderness. Finally, the influence factors of structural parameters of curved beams on their natural frequency are scrutinized.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.253-271
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• 2012

To analyze the bending and transverse shear effects of laminated composite plates, a thirteen nodes triangular element will be presented. The suggested formulations consider a parabolic variation of the transverse shear strains through the thickness. As a result, there is no need to use shear correction coefficients in computing the shear stresses. The proposed element can model both thin and thick plates without any problems, such as shear locking and spurious modes. Moreover, the effectiveness of $w_{,n}$, as an independent degree of freedom, is concluded by the present study. To perform the accuracy tests, several examples will be solved. Numerical results for the orthotropic materials with different boundary conditions, shapes, number of layers, thickness ratios and fiber orientations will be presented. The suggested element calculates the deflections and stresses more accurate than those available in the literature.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.311-320
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• 2005

In this paper an enhanced quadratic finite element for static and dynamic analysis of plate structures is presented. The performance of a proposed plate element is improved by the coupled use of non conforming displacement modes, the selective integration scheme, and the assumed shear strain fields. An efficient direct modification method is also applied to this element to solve the problem such as failure of the patch test due to the adoption of non conforming modes. The proposed quadratic finite element does not show any spurious mechanism and does not produce shear locking phenomena even with distorted meshes. It is shown that the results obtained by this element converged to analytical solutions very rapidly tough numerical tests for standard benchmark problems. It is also noted that this element is applicable to transient dynamic analysis of Mindlin plates.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 1988

A higher order plate bending finite element using cubic in-plane displacement profiles is proposed for geometrically nonlinear analysis of thin and thick plates. The higher order plate bending element has been derived from the three dimensional plate-like continuum by discretization of the equations of motion by Galerkin weighted residual method, together with enforcing higher order plate assumptions. Total Lagrangian formulation has been used for geometrically nonlinear analysis of plates and consistent linearization by Newton-Raphson method has been performed to solve the nonlinear equations. The element characteristics have been computed by, selective reduced integration technique using Gauss quadrature to avoid shear locking phenomenon in case of extremely thin plates. Several numerical examples were solved with FEAP macro program to demonstrate versatility and accuracy of the present higher order plate bending element.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.191-207
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• 2022

Undoubtedly, the employment of direct bond interaction between steel and concrete is preceding the other mechanisms because of its ease of construction. However, the large scatter in the experimental data about the issue has hindered the efforts to characterize bond strength. In the following research, the direct bond interaction and bond-slip behavior of CFTs with circular cross-section were examined through repeated load-reversed push-out tests until four cycles of loading. The influence of different parameters including the diameter of the tube and the use of shear tabs were assessed. Moreover, the utilization of expansive concrete and external spirals was proposed and tested as ways of improving bond strength. According to the results section dimensions, tube slenderness, shrinkage potential of concrete, interface roughness and confinement are key factors in a natural bond. Larger diameters will lead to a considerable drop in bond strength. The use of shear tabs by their associated bending moments increases the bond stress up to eight times. Furthermore, employment of external spirals and expansive concrete have a sensible effect on enhancing bonds. Macro-locking was also found to be the main component in achieving bond strength.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.223-239
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• 2023

Geometric nonlinear performance simulation and analysis of complex modern buildings and industrial products require high-performance shell elements. Balancing multiple aspects of performance in the one geometric nonlinear analysis element remains challenging. We present a new shell element, flat shell DKMGQ-CR (Co-rotational Discrete Kirchhoff-Mindlin Generalized Conforming Quadrilateral), for linear and geometric nonlinear analysis of both thick and thin shells. The DKMGQ-CR shell element was developed by combining the advantages of high-performance membrane and plate elements in a unified coordinate system and introducing the co-rotational formulation to adapt to large deformation analysis. The effectiveness of linear and geometric nonlinear analysis by DKMGQ-CR is verified through the tests of several classical numerical benchmarks. The computational results show that the proposed new element adapts to mesh distortion and effectively alleviates shear and membrane locking problems in linear and geometric nonlinear analysis. Furthermore, the DKMGQ-CR demonstrates high performance in analyzing thick and thin shells. The proposed element DKMGQ-CR is expected to provide an accurate, efficient, and convenient tool for the geometric nonlinear analysis of shells.