• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.601-625
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• 2014

Based on continuum mechanics and the principle of virtual displacements, incremental total Lagrangian formulation (T.L.) and incremental updated Lagrangian formulation (U.L.) were presented. Both T.L. and U.L. considered the large displacement stiffness matrix, which was modified to be symmetrical matrix. According to the incremental updated Lagrangian formulation, small strain, large displacement, finite rotation of three dimensional Timoshenko fiber beam element tangent stiffness matrix was developed. Considering large displacement and finite rotation, a new type of tangent stiffness matrix of the beam element was developed. According to the basic assumption of plane section, the displacement field of an arbitrary fiber was presented in terms of nodal displacement of centroid of cross-area. In addition, shear deformation effect was taken account. Furthermore, a nonlinear finite element method program has been developed and several examples were tested to demonstrate the accuracy and generality of the three dimensional beam element.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.297-320
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• 2005

In recent years the pure displacement formulation for plate elements has not been as popular as other formulations. We revisit the pure displacement formulation for shear-deformable plate elements and propose a family of N-node, displacement-compatible, fully-integrated, pure-displacement, triangular, Mindlin plate elements, MIN-N. The development has been motivated by the relative simplicity of the pure displacement formulation and by the success of the existing 3-node plate element, MIN3. The formulation of MIN3 is generalized to obtain the MIN-N family, which possesses complete, fully compatible kinematic fields, in which the interpolation functions for transverse displacement are one degree higher than those for rotations. General element-level formulas for the thin-limit Kirchhoff constraints are developed. The 6-node, 18 degree-of-freedom element MIN6, with cubic displacement and quadratic rotations, is implemented and tested extensively. Numerical results show that MIN6 exhibits good performance for both static and dynamic analyses in the linear, elastic regime. The results illustrate that the fully-integrated MIN6 element has excellent performance in the thin limit, even for coarse meshes, and that it does not require shear relaxation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.473-489
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• 2002

A static linear programming formulation for minimum weight design of frames that is based on a matrix displacement method is presented in this paper. According to elementary theory of plasticity, minimum weight design of frames can be carried out by using only the equilibrium equations, because the system is statically determinate when at an incipient collapse state. In the present formulation, a statically determinate released frame is defined by introducing hinges into the real frame and the bending moments in yield constraints are expressed in terms of unit hinge rotations and the external loads respectively, by utilizing the matrix displacement method. Conventional Simplex algorithm with some modifications is utilized for the solution of linear programming problem. As the formulation is based on matrix displacement method, it may be easily adopted to the weight optimization of frames with displacement and deformation limitations. Four illustrative examples are also given for comparing the results to those obtained in previous studies.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.203-216
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• 1999

A previously proposed finite element formulation method is refined and modified to generate a new type of elements. The method is based on selecting a set of general solution modes for element formulation. The constant strain modes and higher order modes are selected and the formulation method is designed to ensure that the element will pass the basic single element test, which in turn ensures the passage of the basic patch test. If the element is to pass the higher order patch test also, the element stiffness matrix is in general asymmetric. The element stiffness matrix depends only on a nodal displacement matrix and a nodal force matrix. A symmetric stiffness matrix can be obtained by either modifying the nodal displacement matrix or the nodal force matrix. It is shown that both modifications lead to the same new element, which is demonstrated through numerical examples to be more robust than an assumed stress hybrid element in plane stress application. The method of formulation can also be used to arrive at the conforming displacement and hybrid stress formulations. The convergence of the latter two is explained from the point of view of the proposed method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.199-223
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• 2003

The formulation of a non-linear shear deformable shell element is presented for the solution of stability problems of stiffened plates and shells. The formulation of the geometrical stiffness presented here is exactly defined on the midsurface and is efficient for analyzing stability problems of thick plates and shells by incorporating bending moment and transverse shear resultant force. As a result of the explicit integration of the tangent stiffness matrix, this formulation is computationally very efficient in incremental nonlinear analysis. The element is free of both membrane and shear locking behaviour by using the assumed strain method such that the element performs very well in the thin shells. By using six degrees of freedom per node, the present element can model stiffened plate and shell structures. The formulation includes large displacement effects and elasto-plastic material behaviour. The material is assumed to be isotropic and elasto-plastic obeying Von Mises's yield condition and its associated flow rules. The results showed good agreement with references and computational efficiency.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.591-604
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• 2001

In this paper, a finite element with embedded displacement discontinuity which eliminates the need for remeshing of elements in the discrete crack approach is applied for the progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures. A finite element formulation is implemented with the extension of the principle of virtual work to a continuum which contains internal displacement discontinuity. By introducing a discontinuous displacement shape function into the finite element formulation, the displacement discontinuity is obtained within an element. By applying either a nonlinear or an idealized linear softening curve representing the fracture process zone (FPZ) of concrete as a constitutive equation to the displacement discontinuity, progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures is performed. In this analysis, localized progressive fracture simultaneous with crack closure in concrete structures under mixed mode loading is simulated by adopting the unloading path in the softening curve. Several examples demonstrate the capability of the analytical technique for the progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.539-545
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• 2018

Longitudinal Displacement Profile (LDP) is an appropriate tool for determination of the displacement magnitude of the tunnel walls as a function of the distance to the tunnel face. Some useful formulations for calculation of LDP have been developed based on the monitoring data on site or by 3D numerical simulations. However, the presented equations are only based on the tunnel dimensions and for different quality of rock masses proposed a unique LDP. In the present study, it is tried to present a new formulation, for calculation of LDP, on the basis of Rock mass quality. For this purpose, a comprehensive numerical simulation program was developed to investigate the effect of rock mass quality on the LDP. Results of the numerical modelling were analyzed and the least square technique was used for fitting an appropriate curve on the derived data from the numerical simulations. The proposed formulation in the present study, is a logistic function and the constants of the logistic function were predicted by rock mass quality index (GSI). Results of this study revealed that, the LDP curves of the tunnel surrounded by rock masses with high quality (GSI>60) match together; because the rock mass deformation varies over an elastic range.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.111-126
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• 1999

The work presented here focuses on the development of suitable discretised formulations, for large-displacement shape and non-shape design sensitivity analysis (DSA), which enable the straightforward incorporation of structural optimisation into established finite element analysis (FEA) codes. For the generalised displacement-based functional the design sensitivity vector has been expressed in terms of displacement sensitivity. The Total Lagrangian formulation is utilised for modelling of large deformation of truss structures. The variational formulation of the sensitivity analysis procedure is discretised by using "pseudo" - finite elements, Results are presented for the sensitivity analysis and optimisation of standard truss structures. For the purposes of this work, the analysis and optimisation procedures outlined below are incorporated into the FEA code ABAQUS.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.779-785
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• 2009

This paper is concerned with a computational approach for topology optimization of geometrically nonlinear structures following specific load-displacement trajectories. In our previous works, attention was paid to stabilize topology optimization involving large displacement and a method called the element connectivity parameterization was developed. Here, we aimed to extend the element connectivity parameterization method to find an optimal geometrically nonlinear structure yielding a specific load-displacement trajectory. In contrast to designing a stiffest structure, the trajectory design problem requires special consideration in topology optimization formulation and solution procedure. Some numerical problems were considered to test the developed element connectivity parameterization based formulation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.261-281
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• 2011

A new method of formulation of a class of elements that are immune to mesh distortion effects is proposed here. The simple three-noded bar element with an offset of the internal node from the element center is employed here to demonstrate the method and the principles on which it is founded upon. Using the function space approach, the modified formulation is shown here to be superior to the conventional isoparametric version of the element since it satisfies the completeness requirement as the metric formulation, and yet it is in agreement with the best-fit paradigm in both the metric and the parametric domains. Furthermore, the element error is limited to only those that are permissible by the classical projection theorem of strains and stresses. Unlike its conventional counterpart, the modified element is thus not prone to any errors from mesh distortion. The element formulation is symmetric and thus satisfies the requirement of the conservative nature of problems associated with all self-adjoint differential operators. The present paper indicates that a proper mapping set for distortion immune elements constitutes geometric and displacement interpolations through parametric and metric shape functions respectively, with the metric components in the displacement/strain replaced by the equivalent geometric interpolation in parametric co-ordinates.