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I3ICEF12 - Exam (English version)

duration 2h00

Exercise 1
Let us consider the plane structure on the left figure below. The 4 beams AB, BC, BD and BE are articulated at
their ends. They all have the same charateristics : length L = 2 m, elastic modulus E = 200 GPa, cross-section
area S = 4.10−3 m2 , second moment of area I = 2.10−5 m4 . The loading considered in this exercise is a distributed
loading −rey with magnitude r = 6.104 N/m applied on beams AB and BC.

This problem is plane and symmetric (B, ey , ez ). In the following, we exploit this symmetry to reduce the size of the
problem. We model the left half : the AB part is meshed using a beam element e1, while the BD part is meshed
using a bar element e2 as shown on the right in the figure.
Question 1 : Recall the conditions for a problem to be symmetrical and then specify, in this case, the
conditions to be applied to point B (node 2) to take this symmetry into account.
Question 2 : Explain why a bar element cannot be used for the AB part and why a bar element is suffi-
cient for the BD part.
Recommended notations for the remainder : a = ES/L et b = EI/L3 .
Question 3 : Determine the elementary stiffness matrices (literal expressions).

Question 4 : Éstablish the reference linear system for the half-structure resulting from the assembly and
Neumann conditions.
Question 5 : Deduce the reduced linear system after applying the Dirichlet conditions. The inverse of this
reduced matrix is given below (units used : m, Pa, N).
 
167.9 2.5 −82.1
K? −1 ≈ 10−9 ·  2.5 5. 2.5 
−82.1 2.5 167.9

Question 6 : Solve the problem and determine the value of the trips (specify units).

Question 7 : Illustrate the deformation of the structure with a qualitative diagram.

Question 8 : Determine the value of the normal stress in bar e2 (specify unit)
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Exercise 2
The structure defined in Exercise 1 is considered again. This time, the distributed loading of Exercise 1 is repla-
ced by a uniform thermal loading : the 4 beams undergo, after they have been assembled without stress, an increase
in their temperature ∆T = 80◦ C. The coefficient of thermal expansion of the beam material is noted α = 1.10−5 ◦ C−1 .

Question 9 : Compute γ = ESα∆T , specify units.

Question 10 : Construct the force vector F to be considered for the global system Kq = F for this load
case.
Question 11 : Determine the value of non-zero trips (specify unit). Illustrate the deformation of the struc-
ture with a qualitative diagram.
Question 12 : Determine the normal stress in bar e2. Computing the stress state in beam e1 would give
here a uniform compression state σx = −160 MPa. Comment on the results obtained.

Exercise 3
We consider a plate with dimensions 400 × 40 mm and thickness b = 4 mm clamped on the left edge and subjected
to a transverse force of 1000N applied on its right edge.

This plate is made in aluminum, with E =70 GPa and ν =0.3. We created a finite
element model to study this problem. The selected mesh is the one shown in the
figure ; it is made of Plane Stress elements all having the shape of a right-angled
isoscele triangle. The mesh pitch is L = 10mm.
We are first interested in the e0 element located in the lower corner near the clam-
ping (see figure), one of the areas where the stresses are the highest. This ele-
ment is bounded by nodes 0, 5 and 1.
The displacements of the nodes calculated by the code are given in the following
table :
Node 0 1 4 5 8 9
u (mm) 0.0 0.0 0.0 -0.0414 +0.0197 +0.0437
v (mm) 0.0 0.0 0.0 -0.0199 -0.0112 -0.0201

Question 13 : Construct the matrix of the gradient of the shape functions B0

as a function of L.

Question 14 : Compute the strain and stresse in element e0. Explain why the values calculated here are
valid for any point in element e0.
Question 15 : Compare these stress values to the RDM solution.
What about the actual σy constraint on the edge connecting node 0 and node 5 ?
Question 16 : Same question with element e7.
Compare and comment on the results with respect to element e0.