Prof. P. C.Vasani Applied Mechanics Department L. D. College of Engineering Ahmedabad- 380015 Ph.(079) 7486320 [R] E-mail:pcv-im@eth.

net

1. General : Historical Background : A key contribution to the development of matrix methods for structural analysis was made by Argyris and Kesley. In their contribution they presented matrix formulation for force and displacement methods of analysis using energy theorems of structural mechanics. It was the work of Turner, Clough, Martin and Topp that led to the discovery of FINITE ELMENT METHOD. Clough in his subsequent work ) gave the physical interpretation to the method and it appears that he was the first to use the terminology 'Finite Element'. Since then, tremendous advances have been made in the last 25 years both on the mathematical foundations and generalization of the method to solve field problems in various areas of engineering analysis. During the same period due to rapid development in computer technology, large number of package programs have been developed for Finite Element Analysis which made it possible for wider use of this technique in practice. The Finite Element Method combines in an elegant way the best features of the two approximate methods, i.e. 1. Functional Approximation and 2. Finite Difference Method. In particular the method can be explained through physical concept and hence is most appealing to the engineer. And the method is amenable to systematic computer programming and offers scope for application to a wide range of analysis problems.

Basic Concept : The basic concept is that a body or a structure may be divided in to smaller elements of finite dimensions called 'Finite Elements'. The original body or the structure is then considered as an assemblage of these elements connected at a finite number of joints called 'Nodes' or 'Nodal Points'. The concept of discretization used in Finite Difference Method is adopted here.

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The properties of the elements are formulated and combined to obtain the solution for the entire body or structure. For example, in the displacement formulation widely adopted in Finite Element Analysis, simple functions known as 'Shape Functions' are chosen to approximate the variation of displacement within an element in terms of the displacement at the nodes of the element. This follows the concept used in the Rayleigh Ritz procedure of functional approximation method but the difference is that the approximation to field variable is made at the 'element level'. The strains and stresses within an element will also be expressed in terms of the nodal displacements. Then the principle of virtual displacement or minimum potential energy is used to derive the equation of equilibrium for the element and the nodal displacements will be the unknowns in the equations. The equations of equilibrium for the entire structure or body are then obtained by combining the equilibrium equation of each element such that the continuity of displacement is ensured at each node where the elements are connected. The necessary boundary conditions are imposed and the equations of equilibrium are solved for the nodal displacements. Having thus obtained the values of displacements at the nodes of each element, the strains and stresses are evaluated using the element properties derived earlier. Thus instead of solving the problem for the entire structure or body in one operation, in this method attention is mainly devoted to the formulation of properties of the constituent elements. The procedure for combining the elements, solution of equations and evaluation of element strains and stresses are the same for any type of structural systems or body. Hence, the Finite Element Method offers scope for developing general purpose programs with the properties of various types of elements forming an 'element library' and the other procedure of analysis forming the common core segments. This modular structure of the program organisation is well exploited in the large number of program packages, now available for practical application to various disciplines of engineering. 2. General Steps of FEM : When the Finite Element Method is applied to a problem, following tasks are performed in step-by-step manner. Step1. Discretize and Select element types. Step2. Select approximate function.

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Step3. Define the gradient of the unknown quantity and constitutive relationships. Step4. Derive element equations. Step5. Assemble the equation to obtain the global or total equations and introduce boundary conditions. Step6. Solve for unknown DOF (Primary unknowns). Step7. Solve for secondary quantities Step8. Interpret the results. Now lets see all above steps in brief. Step1. Discretize and Select element types. This step involves subdividing the body into an equivalent system of small bodies, called finite elements. The points at which the primary unknowns are required to be evaluated, are called nodes or nodal points, and interfaces between the elements are called nodal lines (or nodal planes/surfaces). The number of unknowns at a node is termed as nodal degrees-of-freedom (DOF). The most appropriate elements type is chosen for the analysis required. The total number of elements used and their variation in size and type within a given body are primarily matters of engineering judgments. One may choose one-dimensional (1-D), twodimensional (2-D), three-dimensional (3-D) or an axisymmetric element depending upon the physical system under consideration. These elements are shown in Figure (1) (4).

1 X

1-D Problem

Line Elements

Figure (1): One Dimensional (line) elements.

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Qualdrilateral Element
1 2

Triangular Element
1 2

2-D Problem

Figure. (2): Two Dimensional elements.

1 3 5 2 4 Tatrahedral element 1 4 8 3 5 2 6 7

Hexahedral (brick,cubic) element

Figure (3): Three-dimensional elements.

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z 3

r Axisymmetric element
Figure(4):. Axisymmetric element. Axisymmetric elements are used when the geometry and material properties of the physical system are axisymmetric. An axisymmetric element is actually a degenerated, three dimensional element and is constructed by rotating a 2-D finite element about the axis of symmetry by 360o. Discretization is the most important step in the finite element analysis. In a typical problem, almost 90% of the time is spent in this phase of the analysis. As a result, many commercially available finite element software like NISA (Numerically Integrated elements for System Analysis),NASTRAN,PRO-e,SAP, etc. have sophisticated pre-processing part with graphical user interface to expedite data preparation. It may be noted that accuracy of results depends upon understanding of physics of the problem are required to get meaningful results from finite element analysis. Step 2. Select approximation functions. This step involves choosing a pattern or shape for the distribution of the unknown quantity (u) within each element. The unknown quantity can be displacement for stress-analysis problems, temperature in heat flow problems, fluid pressure and/or velocity for fluid flow problem, and both temperature (fluid pressure) and displacement for coupled problems

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involving effects of both flow and deformation. The approximation function is defined within the element using the nodal values of the element. The approximation function is defined within the element using the nodal values of the element. Linear, quadratic and cubic polynomials are frequently used functions because they are simple to work with the finite element formulation. However, trigonometric series could also be used. For an nnode element, the approximation function can be expressed as, u = N1u1 + N2u2+ ..+Nnun Eq(1) Where u1,u2, .. un are the interpolation functions or shape functions. The accuracy of a solution depends greatly on the selection of approximation function. Linear polynomials N1 and N2 are shown in Figure (5) for onedimensional two-node element.
Approximation of u using linear shape function u2 u = N1u1 + N2u2

u1 1

u X

2 2-node line element (linear line element)

N1 u1 u1 1 N1 1 1 X 2 1 2 + 1

N2 u2 u2 2 N2 1 X 2

Figure (5):. One-dimensional approximation of u. Step 3. Define the gradients of the unknown quantity and constitutive relationships. These relationships are necessary for deriving the equations for each finite element. In stress analysis problem, gradients and constitutive relationships are simply the strain-displacement and the stress-strain expressions, respectively, as illustrated in Figure (6) (a) & (b).

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(u) x

ex Variation of u with x

Figure (6) (a). Ex : (a) One-dimensional stress analysis Strain/displacement : ex = du dx Stress-strain : x = E ex (Hookes Law) Where

ex = strain in the x- direction.

x = stress in the x- direction. E = Modulus of elasticity (Material property)

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h h1 1 x

gx (g radient or slope of h) V riation of h (flu id head) h2 2

Figure (6) (b). Ex : (b) One-dimensional flow through porous media Fluid gradient = g x = dh dx Constitutive relation : V x = - k xx g x (Darcys Law) K xx = coefficient of permeability V x = velocity. Step 4. Derive element equations. In this step, equations governing the behavior of a generic (typical) finite element are obtained by involving available laws and principles. These equations describe a relationship between the nodal DOF and the nodal forcing parameters for the generic element. This relationship can be written in compact matrix form as, [Ke] {qe} = {fe} ..Eq(2)

Where, [Ke] = element property matrix (or element stiffness matrix) {qe} = element vector of unknown DOF {fe} = vector of element nodal forcing parameters. There are basic three approaches to derive element equations. They are,

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(I) Direct equilibrium method; (II) Work or energy methods; and (III) Methods of weighted residuals. Step 5. Assemble the element equations to obtain the global or total equations and introduce boundary conditions. Equations for a generic element are derived in step 4. Repeated application of generic element equations results in the element equations for other elements. Then the element equations are added together using a method of superposition to obtain global or total equations for the entire body. This process of superposition is called assembling Implicit in the . assembly process is the concept of continuity, or compatibility which requires that the body remains together and that no tears occur anywhere in the structure. The assembled equation can be written in matrix form as, [K] {q} = {F} ..Eq(3)

Where, [K] = assembled (global) property (stiffness) matrix.(assembly of [ke]) {q} = assembled (global) vector of nodal unknowns.(assembly of {qe}) {F} = assembled )global vector of nodal forcing parameters. (assembly of {fe}) The above equations indicate the capabilities of a body to withstand applied forces. To evaluate the performance of a body, certain boundary conditions need to introduce. Boundary conditions are the physical constraints or support that must exist so that the structure or body is not mobile. These conditions are commonly specified in terms of known values of the unknowns on a part of the surface or boundary of the body. At this stage it is sufficient to note that the global equations are modified when the boundary conditions are incorporated.

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Step 6. Solve for the unknown DOF (primary unknown). The assembled equations (after the modification for the boundary conditions) are solved for the qs by using the Gauss elimination or iterative methods. The qs are called the primary unknowns or primary quantities because they are the first quantities determined using the FEM. Step 7. Solve for secondary quantities. In most problems, it is necessary to compute secondary quantities from the primary quantities. In the case of stress analysis problems such quantities can be strains, stress, moments, and shear forces ; for fluid flow problems they can be velocities and discharges. Once the primary quantities are known, in most cases, the relationship defined in step 3 can be employed to find the secondary quantities. Step 8. Interpret the results. Steps 7 and step 8 are essentially post-processing parts of a finite element analysis. Usually, a tabulated or graphical presentation of results help in making the design/analysis decisions.

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:REFERENCES:
(1)Zienkiewics O.C. and R.L. Taylor, "The Finite Element Method Vol. I, Basic Formulation and Linear Problems", Mcgraw Hill, (U.K.) Limited,1989. (2)Zienkiewics O.C. and K. Morgan, "Finite Elements and Approximation", John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York,1983. (3)Reddy J.N., "An Introduction to the Finite Element Method ", Mcgraw Hill Book Co., Singapore, International Student Edition, 1985. (4)Desai, C.S. and J.F. Abel, Introduction to the Finite Element Method Affiliated East-West Press Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, East-West , Student Edition, 1977.

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