• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.111-130
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• 2016

Two new elements with six degrees of freedom are proposed by applying the equilibrium conditions and strain-displacement equations. The first element is formulated for the infinite ratio of beam radius to thickness. In the second one, theory of the thick beam is used. Advantage of these elements is that by utilizing only one element, the exact solution will be obtained. Due to incorporating equilibrium conditions in the presented formulations, both proposed elements gave the precise internal forces. By solving some numerical tests, the high performance of the recommended formulations and also, interaction effects of the bending and axial forces will be demonstrated. While the second element has less error than the first one in thick regimes, the first element can be used for all regimes due to simplicity and good convergence. Based on static responses, it can be deduced that the first element is efficient for all the range of structural characteristics. The free vibration analysis will be performed using the first element. The results of static and dynamic tests show no deficiency, such as, shear and membrane locking and excessive stiff structural behavior.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.129-145
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• 2020

In typical, structural topology optimization plays a significant role to both increase stiffness and save mass of structures in the resulting design. This study contributes to a new numerical approach of topologically optimal design of Mindlin-Reissner plates considering Winkler foundation and mathematical formulations of multi-directional variable thickness of the plate by using multi-materials. While achieving optimal multi-material topologies of the plate with multi-directional variable thickness, the weight information of structures in terms of effective utilization of the material at the appropriate thickness location may be provided for engineers and designers of structures. Besides, numerical techniques of the well-established mixed interpolation of tensorial components 4 element (MITC4) is utilized to overcome a well-known shear locking problem occurring to thin plate models. The well-founded mathematical formulation of topology optimization problem with variable thickness Mindlin-Reissner plate structures by using multiple materials is derived in detail as one of main achievements of this article. Numerical examples verify that variable thickness Mindlin-Reissner plates on Winkler foundation have a significant effect on topologically optimal multi-material design results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.213-222
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• 2018

The purpose of this paper is to study free vibration analysis of thick plates resting on Winkler foundation using Mindlin's theory with shear locking free fourth order finite element, to determine the effects of the thickness/span ratio, the aspect ratio, subgrade reaction modulus and the boundary conditions on the frequency paramerets of thick plates subjected to free vibration. In the analysis, finite element method is used for spatial integration. Finite element formulation of the equations of the thick plate theory is derived by using higher order displacement shape functions. A computer program using finite element method is coded in C++ to analyze the plates free, clamped or simply supported along all four edges. In the analysis, 17-noded finite element is used. Graphs are presented that should help engineers in the design of thick plates subjected to earthquake excitations. It is concluded that 17-noded finite element can be effectively used in the free vibration analysis of thick plates. It is also concluded that, in general, the changes in the thickness/span ratio are more effective on the maximum responses considered in this study than the changes in the aspect ratio.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.155-168
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• 1998

보강된 판 및 쉘구조의 안정성 및 후좌굴을 포함하는 기하학적 비선형 해석을 수행하기 위하여, total Lagrangian formulation에 근거한 연속체의 증분평형방정식으로부터 변형된 쉘요소인 유한요소이론을 제시하였다. 쉘구조의 곡률이 불연속적으로 변하거나 쉘부재들이 유한한 각도로 만나는 보강된 판 및 쉘구조의 비선형 해석이 가능하도록 주부재와 보강재 간의 연결점에 대한 일반적인 변환관계를 제시하였으며 좌굴해석 및 기하학적 비선형해석의 경우에 해의 정확성 및 수렴성을 개선시키기 위하여 접선강도행렬 산정시 회전각의 2차항을 포함시켰다. 또한, shear locking 현상을 극복하기 위하여 감차적분을 적용하였고 쉘구조의 좌굴해석에서는 power method를 적용하여 해석의 효율을 높였으며, 후좌굴해석에서는 변위 및 하중증분법을 적절히 결합시켜 보강된 쉘구조의 후좌굴 거동추적이 용이하였다. 또한, 입력자료를 손쉽게 준비하고 좌굴모드 및 후좌굴거동을 효율적으로 분석하기 위하여 전, 후 처리 프로그램을 개발하였고 다양한 해석예제를 통하여 다른 문헌의 해석결과를 비교함으로써 본 연구에서 개발된 유한요소 해석프로그램의 타당성 및 정확성을 입증하였다.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.487-504
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• 2006

Several new versatile two-dimensional p-version finite elements are developed. The element matrices are integrated analytically to guarantee the accuracy and monotonic convergence of the predicted solutions of the proposed p-version elements. The analysis results show that the convergence rate of the present elements is very fast with respect to the number of additional Fourier or polynomial terms in shape functions, and their solutions are much more accurate than those of the linear finite elements for the same number of degrees of freedom. Additionally, the new p-version plate elements without the reduced integration can overcome the shear locking problem over the conventional h-version elements. Using the proposed p-version elements with fast convergent characteristic, the elasto-plastic impact of the structure attached with the absorber is simulated. Good agreement between the simulated and experimental results verifies the present p-version finite elements for the analyses of structural dynamic responses and the structural elasto-plastic impact. Further, using the elasto-plastic impact model and the p-version finite element method, the absorber of the T structure on the Qiantang River is designed for its collision protection.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.113-140
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• 2004

A mixed eight-node hexahedral element formulated via the Hu-Washizu principle as well as the field extrapolation technique is presented. The mixed element with only three translational degrees of freedom at each node can provide extremely accurate and reliable performance for popular benchmark problems such as spacial beams, plates, shells as well as general three-dimensional elasticity problems. Numerical calculations also show that when extremely skewed and coarse meshes and nearly incompressible materials are used, the proposed mixed element can still possess excellent behaviour. The mixed formulation starts with introduction of a parallelepiped domain associated with the given general eight-node hexahedral element. Then, the assumed strain field at the nodal level is constructed via the Hu-Washizu variational principle for that associated parallelepiped domain. Finally, the assumed strain field at the nodal level of the given hexahedral element is established by using the field extrapolation technique, and then by using the trilinear shape functions the assumed strain field of the whole element domain is obtained. All matrices involved in establishing the element stiffness matrix can be evaluated analytically and expressed explicitly; however, a 24 by 24 matrix has to be inverted to construct the displacement extrapolation matrix. The proposed hexahedral element satisfies the patch test as long as the element with a shape of parallelepiped.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.257-277
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• 2011

In this paper the geometrically nonlinear continuum plate finite element model, hitherto not reported in the literature, is developed using the total Lagrange formulation. With the layerwise displacement field of Reddy, nonlinear Green-Lagrange small strain large displacements relations (in the von Karman sense) and linear elastic orthotropic material properties for each lamina, the 3D elasticity equations are reduced to 2D problem and the nonlinear equilibrium integral form is obtained. By performing the linearization on nonlinear integral form and then the discretization on linearized integral form, tangent stiffness matrix is obtained with less manipulation and in more consistent form, compared to the one obtained using laminated element approach. Symmetric tangent stiffness matrixes, together with internal force vector are then utilized in Newton Raphson's method for the numerical solution of nonlinear incremental finite element equilibrium equations. Despite of its complex layer dependent numerical nature, the present model has no shear locking problems, compared to ESL (Equivalent Single Layer) models, or aspect ratio problems, as the 3D finite element may have when analyzing thin plate behavior. The originally coded MATLAB computer program for the finite element solution is used to verify the accuracy of the numerical model, by calculating nonlinear response of plates with different mechanical properties, which are isotropic, orthotropic and anisotropic (cross ply and angle ply), different plate thickness, different boundary conditions and different load direction (unloading/loading). The obtained results are compared with available results from the literature and the linear solutions from the author's previous papers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.6
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• pp.615-626
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• 2019

The 3-noded metric Timoshenko beam element with an offset of the internal node from the element centre is used here to demonstrate the best-fit paradigm using function space formulation under locking and mesh distortion. The best-fit paradigm follows from the projection theorem describing finite element analysis which shows that the stresses computed by the displacement finite element procedure are the best approximation of the true stresses at an element level as well as global level. In this paper, closed form best-fit solutions are arrived for the 3-noded Timoshenko beam element through function space formulation by combining field consistency requirements and distortion effects for the element modelled in metric Cartesian coordinates. It is demonstrated through projection theorems how lock-free best-fit solutions are arrived even under mesh distortion by using a consistent definition for the shear strain field. It is shown how the field consistency enforced finite element solution differ from the best-fit solution by an extraneous response resulting from an additional spurious force vector. However, it can be observed that when the extraneous forces vanish fortuitously, the field consistent solution coincides with the best-fit strain solution.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2022

In this paper, a nonlinear numerical method to solve the large deflection problem is introduced. And the non-dimensional load-deflection behavior of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) plates is parametrically investigated. The large deflection problem is formulated according to the von Kármán nonlinear theory and the (1,1,0)^* hierarchical model, and it is approximated by 2-D natural element method (NEM). The shear locking phenomenon is suppressed by the selectively reduced integration method. The nonlinear matrix equations are solved by combining the incremental loading scheme and the Newton-Raphson iteration method. The proposed method is validated from the benchmark experiments, where the propose method shows an excellent agreement with the reference methods. The nonlinear behavior of FG-CNTRC plates is evaluated in terms of the non-dimensional load-deflection curve, and it is parametrically investigated with respect to the existence/non-existence and gradient pattern of CNTs, the width-to-thickness and aspect ratios of plates and the type of boundary conditions. The non-dimensional central deflection is significantly reduced when CNTs and added, and it decreases with the volume fraction of CNTs. But, it shows a uniform increase in proportion to the width-to-thickness and aspect ratios. Both the gradient pattern of CNTs and the type of boundary conditions do also show the remarkable effects.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.351-368
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• 2022

Recently, promising structural technologies like multi-function, ultra-load bearing capacity and tailored structures have been put up for discussions. Finite Element (FE) modelling is probably the best-known option capable of treating these superior properties and multi-domain behavior structures. However, advanced materials such as Functionally Graded Material (FGM) and nanocomposites suffer from problems resulting from variable material properties, reinforcement aggregation and mesh generation. Motivated by these factors, this research proposes a unified shape function for FGM, nanocomposites, graded nanocomposites, in addition to traditional isotropic and orthotropic structural materials. It depends not only on element length but also on the beam's material properties and geometric characteristics. The systematic mathematical theory and FE formulations are based on the Timoshenko beam theory for beam structure. Furthermore, the introduced element achieves C1 degree of continuity. The model is proved to be convergent and free-off shear locking. Moreover, numerical results for static and free vibration analysis support the model accuracy and capabilities by validation with different references. The proposed technique overcomes the issue of continuous properties modelling of these promising materials without discarding older ones. Therefore, introduced benchmark improvements on the FE old concept could be extended to help the development of new software features to confront the rapid progress of structural materials.