Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
~
Norges byggforslmingsinstitutt
OSLO 1966
University of Newcastle upon Tyne Department of Civil Engineering
WORKING SESSION No.4. PAPER No. 14.
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
The use oj Electronic Digital Computers in Structural Engineering
1
Harald Hansteen
SYNOPSIS
INTRODUCTION
In plate bending problems few of the cases met with in practice can
be solved by analytically exact methods. Very often one has to rely on
approximate procedures of variable accuracy. It is natural, therefore,
that investigators have shown great interest in examining the possibili-
ties offered by the finite element method, and as a result a number of
papers on the subject have been published in the recent years. The major
part of these works is concerned with plate elements of rectangular form.
Numerical results reported are yet too few to give reason for any conclu-
sions concerning the accuracy and reliability of the approach in general.
However, encouraging results have been obtained in particular cases,
Zienkiewicz (8). Some investigators have wanted to utilize the advantage
of triangular elements in representing plates of arbitrary shape. Nume-
rical examples carried through by this procedure have not proved.to be
1
Civil engineer, Norwegian Building Research Institute, Oslo, Norway.
A",., .'~
•••. ~ _.1. •
as accurate as for rectangular elements. The results show a converging
character as the element size decreases; however, the values towards
which they converge greatly depend. on the displacement patterns selec-
ted for the elements and have generally little resemblance to the correct
values, Clough (4).
Melosh (7) hap shown that a necessary condition for the finite element
displacement method to converge towards the correct solution is that the
selected displacement patterns must be continuous in the internal of the
elements, and maintain continuity with displacements of adjacent elements.
This condition has not been fully accomplished by the procedures published
so far, all of which fail to establish continuity in normal slopes along
the lines connecting the nodal points. Clough (4) claims this circumstance
to be the basic reason for the lack of accuracy of his results. One
should anticipate a similar tendency to oceur for the procedures applying
rectangular elements. When such a tendency is not as yet found, the reason
is probably that in the limited number of test examples examined the dis-
crepancy in normal slope between the elements has been of little signifi-
canoe.
Displ. at node k.
Displacement patterns
wk wk,x w w
k,y k,xy
.
1. Positive displ. of all four elements 1 0 0 0
Table 1
Here w is the normal displacement of node k and the comma denotes par-
k
tial differentation.
Fig. lb shows element III provided with, an internal coordinate system
(x,y,z), z positive downwards, and with internal numbering of the nodes
from 1 to 4 [internal node 1 corresponds to the global numbering k]. The
side lengths of the element are a and b, and a new set of dimensionless
coordinates (~,~) which may substitute coordinates (x,y) are defined as
follows:
The notation
1
(5,1) is adopted to describe the continuous normal displace-
V
(3)
(4)
The "'i matrices are easily obtained from Eq. (5) by substituting the ac-
tual nodal point number. The IA i matrices will be
(8)
where
[) Et 3 0 (10)
~
12(1'l-\?) "
0
"
0 0 2( 1+,,)
E ~ [~odulus of elasticity
" ~ Pcisson's ratio
t thickness of the plate
(13 )
where
R ; D< .. (16 )
The numerical results shown below are intended to illustrate the accu-
racy of the procedure. The moment values repo~ted are the mean values of
the moments at each nodal point. In the cases where distributed loads
occur the corresponding nodal loads have been computed from Eq. (15).
Example l : The first example is the standard problem of a simply sup-'
ported quadratic plate og uniform thickness shown in Fig. 2. Two loading
cases are considered:
Example 2: Fig. 3 shows the same plate as in example 1, this time par-
tially loaded by a uniform load over a square 1/8 by 1/8 of the side lengths.
The applied finite element mesh, as well as the position of the loaded area -~;
[shaded in the figure], are shown in the figure. In the accompaning table
are given the computed and the exact displacements and moments at the nodal ..• ,
points of the section A-A.
,
1
Example 3: The third example is a uniformly loaded plate completely
fixed at three edges' and free at the fourth edge. The results are cum-
pared to a nearly exact solution of the problem proposed by Hellan (6).
Hellan has given the displacement values with three significant digits.
These digits are verified by the finite element solution. The necessary
data of the example and the moments in significant sections of the plate
are shown in Fig. 4.
CONCLUSIONS
The numerical examples cover some of the loading cases and'ed!e conditi-
ons that frequently oocur in practical problems. It ia intere!ting to note
that the degree of accuracy obtained for the displacements and the mo-
ments in the various caaes do not depend on the type of the problem.
This indicates that equally accurate results may be expected for other
types of problems.
In example 1 are tested tbe convergence properties of the procedure.
That the results do co;"';"~e toward the correct solution is clearly de-
monstrated by the resultfr. Another interesting feature is that even the
results obtained for the very coarse mesh n = 1 are well within the li-
mits of accuracy needed in practical computations. One should, however,
be careful not to draw any conclusions from one simple example. Further
investigations are needed to clarify the connection between the size of
the finite elements and the accuracy of the results.
The results of Examples 2 and 3 are close to the exact values. The
greatest errors occur at points where the gradient of the curvatures are .
steep, as in point 3 of Example 2. The maximum values seem to be very
accurate. An exception is the moment value in point 1 of Example 3. How-
ever, in this particular point Hellan (6) points out that the reference
value is less reliable.
REFERENCES
6. Hellan, K. "The Rectangular Plate with One Free Edge", Trondhelm 1960.
common
n = 1 2 3 4 exact factor
Fig. 2.
M~sh SIZ~S
Dis~lacements and moments along section A - A r.
/ ..
common
Point 2 3 4 5 6 factor
Fig: 3.
~-+--rH-t---t-- -
'X
V :: 0,3
1 2 34567 • ---A
A---· • II • • •
8. Zienkiewicz, O. C. "Finite Element Procedures in the Solution of
Plate and Shell Problems"in Stress Analysis". John Wiley & Sons Ltd.,
London, 1965.
--
I~
•
.:.:
~ !sf
~.
Moments.
common
Point 1 2 3 4 5 factor
Mx
°
0,11 1,17 1,98 2,54
Hellan (6) °
My + 5,16 + 1.32 0,35 0,68