Finite Element Formulation for Plates - Handout 4 Dr Fehmi Cirak (fc286@)

Completed Version

Kinematics of Reissner-Mindlin Plate -1

The extension of Timoshenko beam theory to plates is the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory In Reissner-Mindlin plate theory the out-of-plane shear deformations are non-zero (in contrast to Kirchhoff plate theory) Almost all commercial codes (Abaqus, LS-Dyna, Ansys, ) use ReissnerMindlin type plate finite elements Assumed displacements during loading

deformed

reference undeformed and deformed geometries along one of the coordinate axis

Kinematic assumption: a plane section originally normal to the mid-surface remains plane, but in addition also shear deformations occur
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Kinematics of Reissner-Mindlin Plate -2

Kinematic equations

In plane-displacements

In this equation and in following all Greek indices only take values 1 or 2 It is assumed that rotations are small Rotation angle of normal: Angle of shearing: Slope of midsurface:

Out-of-plane displacements

The independent variables of the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory are the rotation angle and mid-surface displacement Introducing the displacements into the strain equation of three-dimensional elasticity leads to the strains of the plate

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Weak Form of Reissner-Mindlin Plate -1

Axial strains and in-plane shear: Out-of-plane shear:

Note that always

Through-the-thickness strain:

The plate strains introduced into the internal virtual work of threedimensional elasticity give the internal virtual work of the plate

with virtual displacements and rotations:

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Weak Form of Reissner-Mindlin Plate -2

Definition of bending moments: Definition of shear forces:

External virtual work

Distributed surface load

Weak form of Reissner-Mindlin plate

As usual summation convention applies

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Weak Form of Reissner-Mindlin Plate -3

Constitutive equations

For bending moments (same as Kirchhoff plate)

For shear forces

Note that the curvature and the shear angle

is a function of rotation angle is a function of rotation angle

and the mid-surface displacement

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Finite Element Discretization -1

The independent variables in the weak form are corresponding test functions

and the

Weak form contains only

so that C0-interpolation is sufficient

Usual (Lagrange) shape functions such as used in 3D7 can be used

Nodal values of variables: Nodal values test functions:

Interpolation equations introduced into the kinematic equations yield

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Finite Element Discretization -2-

Constitutive equations in matrix notation

Bending moments: Shear forces:

Element stiffness matrix of a four-node quadrilateral element

Bending stiffness (12x12 matrix)

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Finite Element Discretization -3

Shear stiffness (12x12 matrix)

Element stiffness matrix

The integrals are evaluated with numerical integration. If too few integration points are used, element stiffness matrix will be rank deficient.

The necessary number of integration points for the bilinear element are 2x2 Gauss points

The global stiffness matrix and global load vector are obtained by assembling the individual element stiffness matrices and load vectors

The assembly procedure is identical to usual finite elements

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Shear Locking Problem -1

As discussed for the Bernoulli and Timoshenko beams with increasing plate slenderness physics dictates that shear deformations have to vanish (i.e., )

Reissner-Mindlin plate and Timoshenko beam finite elements have problems to approximate deformation states with zero shear deformations (shear locking problem)

1D example: Cantilever beam with applied tip moment

Bending moment and curvature constant along the beam Shear force and hence shear angle zero along the beam Displacements quadratic along the beam

Discretized with one two-node Timoshenko beam element

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Shear Locking Problem -2

Deflection interpolation: Rotation interpolation: Shear angle: For the shear angle to be zero along the beam, the displacements and rotations have to be zero. Hence, a shear strain in the beam can only be reached when there are no deformations! Similarly, enforcing displacements and rotations! at two integration points leads to zero

However, enforcing beam) leads to non-zero displacements

only at one integration point (midpoint of the

In the following several techniques will be introduced to circumvent the shear locking problem

Use of higher-order elements Uniform and selective reduced integration Discrete Kirchhoff elements Assumed strain elements
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Constraint Ratio (Hughes et al.) -1

Constraint ratio is a semi-heuristic number for estimating an elements tendency to shear lock

Continuous problem

Number of equilibrium equations: 3 (two for bending moments + one for shear force) Number of shear strain constraints in the thin limit: 2

Constraint ratio:

With four-node quadrilateral finite elements discretized problem

Number of degrees of freedom per element on a very large mesh is ~3 Number of constraints per element for 2x2 integration per element is 8

Constraint ratio:

Number of constraints per element for one integration point per element is 2

Constraint ratio:

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Constraint Ratio (Hughes et al.) -2

Constraint ratio for a 9 node element

Number of degrees of freedom per element on a very large mesh is ~ 4x3 =12 Number of constraints per element for 3x3 integration is 18 Constraint ratio:

Constraint ratio for a 16 node element

Number of degrees of freedom per element on a very large mesh is ~ 9x3=27 Number of constraints per element for 4x4 integration is 32 Constraint ratio:

As indicated by the constraint ratio higher-order elements are less likely to exhibit shear locking

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Uniform And Selective Reduced Integration -1

The easiest approach to avoid shear locking in thin plates is to use some form of reduced integration

In uniform reduced integration the bending and shear terms are integrated with the same rule, which is lower than the normal In selective reduced integration the bending term is integrated with the normal rule and the shear term with a lower-order rule

Uniform reduced integrated elements have usually rank deficiency (i.e. there are internal mechanisms; deformations which do not need energy)

The global stiffness matrix is not invertible Not useful for practical applications

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Uniform And Selective Reduced Integration -2-

Shape functions Uniform reduced integration Selective reduced integration

Bilinear 1x1 1x1 shear 2x2 bending

Biquadratic 2x2 2x2 shear 3x3 bending

Bicubic 3x3 3x3 shear 4x4 bending

Shear refers to the integration of the element shear stiffness matrix Bending refers to the integration of the element bending stiffness matrix
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Discrete Kirchhoff Elements

The principal approach is best illustrated with a Timoshenko beam The displacements and rotations are approximated with quadratic shape functions

The inner variables are eliminated by enforcing zero shear stress at the two gauss points

Back inserting into the interpolation equations leads to a beam element with 4 nodal parameters
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Assumed Strain Elements

It is assumed that the out-of-plane shear strains at edge centres are of higher quality (similar to the midpoint of a beam)

First, the shear angle at the edge centres is computed using the displacement and rotation nodal values

Subsequently, the shear angles from the edge centres are interpolated back

Note that the shape functions

are special edge shape functions

These reinterpolated shear angles are introduced into the weak form and are for element stiffness matrix computation used
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