Finite Element Method

for 2D: Plane stress

problem.
Assistant Prof. Hang Thu Vu
hang@civil.uwa.edu.au
The plane stress problem
Displacement at a point

2 DOFs (degrees of freedom) per node

{ }

'

) , (
) , (
) , (
y x u
y x u
y x u
y
x
Strain at a point

Strain at a point

Relationship between displacement and strain:

x
y x u
y
y x u
y x
y
y x u
y x
x
y x u
y x
y
x
xy
y
y
x
x

) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (

{ }

'

) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
y x
y x
y x
y x
xy
y
x

Strain at a point

In matrix form for FEM formulation

Stress at a point

Stress at a point

Relationship between stress and strain

{ }

'

) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
y x
y x
y x
y x
xy
y
x

( )
( )
) , (
2
1
1
) , (
) , ( ) , (
1
) , (
) , ( ) , (
1
) , (
2
2
2
y x
E
y x
y x y x
E
y x
y x y x
E
y x
xy xy
y x y
y x x

Stress at a point

In matrix form for FEM formulation

{ }
[ ]{ }
[ ][ ]{ } ) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
2
1
0 0
0 1
0 1
1
) , (
2
y x u L D
y x D
y x
y x
y x
E
y x
xy
y
x

'

1
1
1
1
]
1

Stress at a point

In which, the property matrix is

Where

: Youngs modulus;

: Poissons ratio
[ ]
1
1
1
1
]
1

2
1
0 0
0 1
0 1
1
2

E
D
E

FEM Galerkins approach

The approximated solution is obtained by

interpolating nodal approximated values by
shape functions
...
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
1
1

'

'

n
i
yi i
n
i
xi i
y
x
u y x N
u y x N
y x u
y x u
FEM Galerkins approach

In detail,

'

1
]
1

yn
xn
y
x
y
x
n
n
u
u
u
u
u
u
y x N
y x N
y x N
y x N
y x N
y x N
....
) , ( 0
0 ) , (
...
...
) , ( 0
0 ) , (
) , ( 0
0 ) , (
2
2
1
1
2
2
1
1
FEM Galerkins approach

is the shape function at node i. It has

value of 1 at the associated node and value
of zero at all other nodes

The shape functions interpolate the nodal

displacements in each direction
independently.
) , ( y x N
i
FEM Galerkins approach

At this stage, we have all required

components to formulate the stiffness matrix

At element level, we have

[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] dxdy t y x B D y x B dV y x B D y x B K
e
Area
T
e e
V
T
e
n n
e
) , ( ) , ( ) , ( ) , (
2 2

[ ]
n n e
y x N L y x B
2 2 2 3 2 3
)] , ( [ ] [ ) , (


2D Elements

The finite element method uses

isoparametric elements to describe the
problem domain.

In previous lectures we formulated 1D

element to solve for 1D problems.

For 2D problems, the method uses 2D

elements, which are triangular elements and
quadrilateral elements, to subdivide the
problem domain.
2D Elements

Below figure shows the domain of the plane

stress problem being discretised by triangular
elements and quadrilateral elements
subsequently.
2D Elements

Note that for symmetric problem, we do not

need to model whole domain.

We can truncate the original domain at the

symmetry axis or symmetry plane and apply
symmetric boundary conditions at the cut to
recover the compatibility between behaviour
of the part we model and the whole domain.

This technique helps to reduce the amount of

data storage and computational cost to solve
the problem.
2D Elements

The mesh which should be used for the

example is

Depending on the polynomial order of the

shape functions, we can have linear element,
quadratic element, high-order element.
2D Elements

In the next two lectures, we will develop the

formulation for triangular elements and
quadrilateral elements.

By the end of these lectures, we finish our

lecture series on the FEM within this unit
scope