Springs and Assemblies of Springs

Figure 1.3: Two rod system

Let us now apply the method to a more complex two rod system in Figure 1.3. We introduce a
preliminary step - idealization of the problem. For complex problems we are rarely if ever able to
analyze the base structure directly. We need to simplify it first.

 Step 0: Idealization

The axial deformation behavior of a rod subjected to load is much like that of a

spring. where F is the applied force, A is the cross section area,E is the

elastic modulus, L is the length, and d is the deflection. If we identify as a spring

constant then it is indeed spring like behavior. We must point out that this is a great
simplification since we assume that lateral deformations are negligible, area of cross
section and elastic modulus are constant etc.

Thus, we simplify the 2 rod structure to an equivalent 2 spring system as in Fig 1.4.

We can now follow again the five step process we defined earlier.

Figure: 2 spring elements and 3 displacement degrees of freedom after FE discretization.

 Step 1: FE Discretization

We decompose the structure into 2 elements each comprised of one spring. Thus we end
up with 2 elements and 3 nodes.

 Step 2: Local Approximation

On each element we can obtain the local approximation by looking at the sum of forces at
each node.
Figure 1.5: General spring with stiffnes kp and under loads fip and fjp

For node i and node j in figure 1.5

Rewriting in matrix form and moving the forces to the right:

or in compact notation

where [k] is called the element stiffness matrix, is the element displacement vector

and is the element force vector.

Equations (1.3) repesents the behavior of any generic element. Let us now specialize it
for the two elements in our structure.

Element 1

The specialization is simply an identification of the symbols p with element number, i

and j with the appropriate nodes and kp with the correct stiffness coefficient. Thus for
element 1

and correspondingly (1.3) is now

 Element 2

For element 2

and correspondingly (1.3) is now

 Step 3: Assemble the element equations:

We need to put together (1.4) and (1.5) to get the total system behavior. Examination of
Fig. (1.4) shows that the forces at the nodes add up (we took care in setting up the system
that they were all in the same direction). Fig. 1.6 shows all the forces and their locations
and directions.

Figure 1.6: Forces on nodes

Writing down the sum of forces at each node as shown in Fig. 1.6 in matrix-vector form
yields:

or in compact notation

Now take a careful look at (1.6). We notice that this equation is simply an overlap of (1.4)
and (1.5) with addition of terms corresponding to the shared

node . Thus, the same equation could have

 been obtained without reference to Fig. 1.6 and writing sums of forces by simply

overlapping [k] , and from (1.4) and (1.5) appropriately.

Application of Loads and Constraints

Before we can obtain a solution to equations (1.6) we have to modify the system above to
account for
 applied loads
 constraints

Let us account for the applied loads first. From Fig. 1.4 the applied load of F at node 3 implies
-f23 = F. Since there are no applied loads at node 2, -f21=-f22=0. Modifying (1.6) we get

Now applying the constraint (node 1 is constrained )

Moving the first column to the right hand side

The first equation reduces now to -k1 u2 = -f11, a redundant equation in u2. Dropping it we are
left with

We are left with 2 equations for the 2 unknowns u2 and u3. Thus, the net effect of applying the
constraint was that of deleting the row and column corresponding to the displacement that was
constrained. This shortcut will work as long as the constraint is homogeneous i.e. ui=0. If a non-
zero constraint is to be applied then the procedure outlined above must be conducted. Note that
we did not have to deal with the unknown reaction at the wall f11!
  Step 4: Obtain the Solution

We can solve (1.10) to get values for u2,u3. Let k1=2000,k2=1000 and F=10 then

u3=.015 and u2=.005.

Exercise

Use the approach above to obtain the displacements for the three rod structure shown below.

Figure: 3 rod structure