• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.344-352
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• 2002

In the analysis of the 3 dimensional plate structures by the finite element method, the triangular elements are generally used for the global stiffness matrix of the analyzed system. But the triangular elements of the plates have some problems in the process of formulation and in the precision of analysis. The formulation of the finite element method to analyze 3 dimensional plate structures using quadrilateral elements is presented in this paper. The degree of freedom off nodal point is 6, that is, the displacements in the direction off-y-z is and the rotations about x-y-z axis and then the degree of freedom off element is 24. For the comparison of the analysis using triangular elements and quadrilateral elements, the rectangular plates subjected to the uniform load and a concentrated load on the centroid of the plate, for which the theoretical solutions have been obtained, are analyzed. The calculated deflections of the rectangular plates using the finite element method by the triangular elements and the quadrilateral elements are also compared with the deflections of the plates calculated by theoretical solutions. The defections of the rectangular plates calculated by the finite element method using the quadrilateral elements are closer to the theoretical solutions than the defections calculated by the finite element method using the triangular elements. The deflection of the centroid of plate, calculated by the finite element method, converges to that of theoretical solution as the number of elements is increased. This convergence is much more rapid for the case of using the quakrilateral elements than fir the case of using triangular elements.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.324-329
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• 2001

A novel method for non-matching interfaces on the boundaries of the finite elements in partitioned domains is presented by introducing interface elements in this paper. The interface element method (IEM) satisfies the continuity conditions exactly through interfaces without recourse to the Lagrange multiplier technique. The moving least square (MLS) approximation in the present study is implemented to construct the shape functions of the interface elements. Alignment of the boundaries of sub-domains in the MLS approximation and integration domains provides a consistent numerical integration due to one form of rational functions in an integration domain. The compatibility of displacements on the boundaries of the finite elements and the interface elements is always preserved in this method, and the completeness of the shape functions of the interface elements guarantees the convergence of numerical solutions. The numerical examples show that the interface element method is a useful tool for the analysis of a partitioned system and for a global-local analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.3
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• pp.311-324
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• 2023

Herein, we present effective polygonal finite elements to which the strain-smoothed element (SSE) method is applied. Recently, the SSE method has been developed for conventional triangular and quadrilateral finite elements; furthermore, it has been shown to improve the performance of finite elements. Polygonal elements enable various applications through flexible mesh handling; however, further development is still required to use them more effectively in engineering practice. In this study, piecewise linear shape functions are adopted, the SSE method is applied through the triangulation of polygonal elements, and a smoothed strain field is constructed within the element. The strain-smoothed polygonal elements pass basic tests and show improved convergence behaviors in various numerical problems.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.141-149
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• 2002

Although the finite element method has become an indispensible tool for the dynamic analysis of structures, difficulty remains to quantify the errors associated with discretization. To improve the modeling accuracy, this paper proposes a method to make a combined use of finite elements and exact dynamic elements. Exact interpolation functions for the Timoshenko beam element are derived using the exact dynamic element modeling (EDEM) and compared with interpolation functions of the finite element method (FEM). The exact interpolation functions are tested with the Laplace variable varied. A combined use of finite element method and exact interpolation functions is presented to gain more accurate mode shape functions. This paper also presents a combined use of finite elements and exact dynamic elements in design/reanalysis problems. Timoshenko flames with tapered sections are tested to demonstrate the design procedure with the proposed method. The numerical study shows that the combined use of finite element model and exact dynamic element model is very useful.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.29-42
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• 2017

The purpose of the present study is the presentation of the appropriate element and shape function in the solution of the neutron diffusion equation in two-dimensional (2D) geometries. To this end, the multigroup neutron diffusion equation is solved using the Galerkin finite element method in both rectangular and hexagonal reactor cores. The spatial discretization of the equation is performed using unstructured triangular and quadrilateral finite elements. Calculations are performed using both linear and quadratic approximations of shape function in the Galerkin finite element method, based on which results are compared. Using the power iteration method, the neutron flux distributions with the corresponding eigenvalue are obtained. The results are then validated against the valid results for IAEA-2D and BIBLIS-2D benchmark problems. To investigate the dependency of the results to the type and number of the elements, and shape function order, a sensitivity analysis of the calculations to the mentioned parameters is performed. It is shown that the triangular elements and second order of the shape function in each element give the best results in comparison to the other states.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2011

In this paper, a good quality mesh generation for the finite element method is investigated for artificial hip joint simulations. In general, bad meshes with a large aspect ratio or mixed elements can give rise to excessively long computational running times and extremely high errors. Typically, hexahedral elements outperform tetrahedral elements during three-dimensional contact analysis using the finite element method. Therefore, it is essential to mesh biologic structures with hexahedral elements. Four meshing schemes for the finite element analysis of an artificial hip joint are presented and compared: (1) tetrahedral elements, (2) wedge and hexahedral elements, (3) open cubic box hexahedral elements, and (4) proposed hexahedral elements. The proposed meshing scheme is to partition a part before seeding so that we have a high quality three-dimensional mesh which consists of only hexahedral elements. The von Mises stress distributions were obtained and analyzed. We also performed mesh refinement convergence tests for all four cases.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.659-665
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• 2010

The finite element method(FEM) is proven to be an effective approximate method of structural analysis if proper element types and meshes are chosen, and recently, the method is often applied to solve complex dynamic and nonlinear problems. A properly chosen element type and mesh yields reliable results for dynamic finite element structural analysis. However, dynamic behavior of a structure may include unpredictably large strains in some parts of the structure, and using the initial mesh throughout the duration of a dynamic analysis may include some elements to go through strains beyond the elements' reliable limits. Thus, the finite element mesh for a dynamic analysis must be dynamically adaptive, and considering the rapid process of analysis in real time, the dynamically adaptive finite element mesh generating schemes must be computationally efficient. In this paper, a computationally efficient dynamically adaptive finite element mesh generation scheme for dynamic analyses of structures is described. The concept of representative strain value is used for error estimates and the refinements of meshes use combinations of the h-method(node movement) and the r-method(element division). The shape coefficient for element mesh is used to correct overly distorted elements. The validity of the scheme is shown through a cantilever beam example under a concentrated load with varying values. The example shows reasonable accuracy and efficient computing time. Furthermore, the study shows the potential for the scheme's effective use in complex structural dynamic problems such as those under seismic or erratic wind loads.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.486-491
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• 2000

In this study, finite elements addition and removal method by stress range is applied to optimize shapes in structures, without using classical and numerical optimization methods and search methods. The program based on this algorithm is developed and compared to theoritial results with considerable accuracy. Classical methods need mesh generation for finite element analysis for every iteration, the developed method needs updated mesh data such as coordinates of nodes, elements connectivity, and loads on nodes. And other tools of finite element analysis can be in use as a black box to interface with this program.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.679-695
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• 2014

A design method of second generation wavelet (SGW)-based multivariable finite elements is proposed for static and vibration beam analysis. An important property of SGWs is that they can be custom designed by selecting appropriate lifting coefficients depending on the application. The SGW-based multivariable finite element equations of static and vibration analysis of beam problems with two and three kinds of variables are derived based on the generalized variational principles. Compared to classical finite element method (FEM), the second generation wavelet-based multivariable finite element method (SGW-MFEM) combines the advantages of high approximation performance of the SGW method and independent solution of field functions of the MFEM. A multiscale algorithm for SGW-MFEM is presented to solve structural engineering problems. Numerical examples demonstrate the proposed method is a flexible and accurate method in static and vibration beam analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.923-937
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• 2014

The rational finite element method is different from the standard finite element method, which is constructed using basic solutions of the governing differential equations as interpolation functions in the elements. Therefore, it is superior to the isoparametric approach because of its obvious physical meaning and accuracy; it has successfully been applied to the isotropic elasticity problem. In this paper, the formulation of rational finite elements for plane orthotropic elasticity problems is deduced. This method is formulated directly in the physical domain with full consideration of the requirements of the patch test. Based on the number of element nodes and the interpolation functions, different approaches are applied with complete polynomial interpolation functions. Then, two special stiffness matrixes of elements with four and five nodes are deduced as a representative application. In addition, some typical numerical examples are considered to evaluate the performance of the elements. The numerical results demonstrate that the present method has a high level of accuracy and is an effective technique for solving plane orthotropic elasticity problems.