For complex geometries

© 2002 Brooks/Cole Publishing / Thomson Learning™

General quadrilateral elements

Elements with curved sides

Consider a special 4-noded rectangle in its local coordinate system (s,t)

t
2 1 Displacement interpolation
1 1
1 u  N1u1  N 2 u 2  N 3u3  N 4 u 4
s v  N1v1  N 2 v2  N 3 v3  N 4 v4
1
Shape functions in local coord system
3 4
1
N 1 ( s, t )  (1  s )(1  t )
4
1
N 2 ( s, t )  (1  s )(1  t )
4
1
N 3 ( s, t )  (1  s )(1  t )
4
1
N 4 ( s, t )  (1  s )(1  t )
4
Recall that

N1  N 2  N 3  N 4  1 Rigid body modes

N1 s1  N 2 s 2  N 3 s3  N 4 s 4  s Constant strain
states
N1t1  N 2 t 2  N 3t 3  N 4 t 4  t
Goal is to map this element from local coords to a general quadrilateral element in global
coord system t

2
t
2
1 1
1 x  x ( s, t ) y 1
1 y  y ( s, t ) 3
s
s
1
s  s ( x, y ) 4 s
3 4
t  t ( x, y ) x
Local coordinate system
Global coordinate system

N 1 ( s, t ) N1 ( x, y)

N1 (s, t )  N1 (s( x, y), t ( x, y))  N1 ( x, y)

 In the mapped coordinates, the shape functions need to satisfy

1. Kronecker delta property

Then  1 at node i
Ni  
0 at all other nodes
2. Polynomial completeness

Ni
i 1

N x
i
i i x

N y
i
i i y