Study on Elastic Forces of the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation for Deformable Beams

Author(s):  
Yoshitaka Takahashi ◽  
Nobuyuki Shimizu

Abstract There are three basic finite element formulations which are used in the dynamics of flexible beams. These are the floating frame of reference approach, the finite segment method and the large rotation vector approach. Recently, the absolute nodal coordinate formulation was proposed by A.A.Shabana et al. In this procedure, there is no need to transform the element matrices since the equations of motion are defined in terms of absolute nodal coordinates. The mass matrix becomes constant, whereas the stiffness matrix becomes nonlinear function of time, even in case of linear elastic problems. One possible method to avoid such cumbersome of the absolute nodal coordinate formulation in calculating clastic forces is to assume the infinitesimal deformation theory against beams undergoing large rotation. In this paper, a new formulation to calculate the elastic forces and add the rotary inertia effects in the expression of the inertia forces. This formulation is based on the assumption that the deformations within each element remain very small. The expression of the resulting clastic force is simple, and the need for performing coordinate transformation is avoided. As the method assumes that the deformation of the beam from a selected beam axis is very small, a large number of finite elements is required for large deformation problems. However, the formulation has been found to be efficient for large rotation and medium deformation problems. Numerical examples are demonstrated for this formulation by using planar flexible pendulum problems.

Author(s):  
R. Y. Yakoub ◽  
A. A. Shabana

Abstract By utilizing the fact that the absolute nodal coordinate formulation leads to a constant mass matrix, a Cholesky decomposition of the mass matrix can be used to obtain a constant velocity transformation matrix. This velocity transformation can be used to express the absolute nodal coordinates in terms of the generalized Cholesky coordinates. In this case, the inertia matrix associated with the Cholesky coordinates is the identity matrix, and therefore, an optimum sparse matrix structure can be obtained for the augmented multibody equations of motions. The implementation of a computer procedure based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation and Cholesky coordinates is discussed in this paper. A flexible four-bar linkage is presented in this paper in order to demonstrate the use of Cholesky coordinates in the simulation of the small and large deformations in flexible multibody applications. The results obtained from the absolute nodal coordinate formulation are compared to those obtained from the floating frame of reference formulation.


Author(s):  
Alexander Olshevskiy ◽  
Oleg Dmitrochenko ◽  
Chang-Wan Kim

The present paper contributes to the field of flexible multibody systems dynamics. Two new solid finite elements employing the absolute nodal coordinate formulation are presented. In this formulation, the equations of motion contain a constant mass matrix and a vector of generalized gravity forces, but the vector of elastic forces is highly nonlinear. The proposed solid eight node brick element with 96 degrees of freedom uses translations of nodes and finite slopes as sets of nodal coordinates. The displacement field is interpolated using incomplete cubic polynomials providing the absence of shear locking effect. The use of finite slopes describes the deformed shape of the finite element more exactly and, therefore, minimizes the number of finite elements required for accurate simulations. Accuracy and convergence of the finite element is demonstrated in nonlinear test problems of statics and dynamics.


2000 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 614-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Refaat Y. Yakoub ◽  
Ahmed A. Shabana

This part of these two companion papers demonstrates the computer implementation of the absolute nodal coordinate formulation for three-dimensional beam elements. Two beam elements that relax the assumptions of Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theories are developed. These two elements take into account the effect of rotary inertia, shear deformation and torsion, and yet they lead to a constant mass matrix. As a consequence, the Coriolis and centrifugal forces are identically equal to zero. Both beam elements use the same interpolating polynomials and have the same number of nodal coordinates. However, one of the elements has two nodes, while the other has four nodes. The results obtained using the two elements are compared with the results obtained using existing incremental methods. Unlike existing large rotation vector formulations, the results of this paper show that no special numerical integration methods need to be used in order to satisfy the principle of work and energy when the absolute nodal coordinate formulation is used. These results show that this formulation can be used in manufacturing applications such as high speed forming and extrusion problems in which the element cross section dimensions significantly change.


Author(s):  
Aki M. Mikkola ◽  
Ahmed A. Shabana

Abstract In this investigation, a method for the finite rotation and large deformation analysis of plates is presented. The method, which is based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation, leads to a plate element capable of representing exact rigid body motion. In this method, continuity conditions on all the displacement gradients are imposed. Therefore, non-smoothness of the plate mid-surface at the nodal points is avoided. By developing such a plate element, a constant mass matrix is obtained, and as a consequence, the centrifugal and Coriolis forces are equal to zero. Generalization of the formulation to the case of shell elements is discussed. Numerical results are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the proposed method in the large rotation and deformation analysis of plates and shells.


Author(s):  
Marcello Berzeri ◽  
Marcello Campanelli ◽  
A. A. Shabana

Abstract The equivalence of the elastic forces of finite element formulations used in flexible multibody dynamics is the focus of this investigation. Two conceptually different finite element formulations that lead to exact modeling of the rigid body dynamics will be used. These are the floating frame of reference formulation and the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. It is demonstrated in this study that different element coordinate systems, which are used for the convenience of describing the element deformations in the absolute nodal coordinate formulation, lead to similar results as the element size is reduced. The equivalence of the elastic forces in the absolute nodal coordinate and the floating frame of reference formulations is shown. The result of this analysis clearly demonstrates that the instability observed in high speed rotor analytical models due to the neglect of the geometric centrifugal stiffening is not a problem inherent to a particular finite element formulation but only depends on the beam model that is used. Fourier analysis of the solutions obtained in this investigation also sheds new light on the fundamental problem of the choice of the deformable body coordinate system in the floating frame of reference formulation. A new method is presented and used to obtain a simple expression for the elastic forces in the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. This method, which employs a nonlinear elastic strain-displacement relationship, does not result in an unstable solution when the angular velocity is increased.


Author(s):  
Riki Iwai ◽  
Nobuyuki Kobayashi

This paper establishes a new type component mode synthesis method for a flexible beam element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. The deformation of the beam element is defined as the sum of the global shape function and the analytical clamped-clamped beam modes. This formulation leads to a constant and symmetric mass matrix as the conventional absolute nodal coordinate formulation, and makes it possible to reduce the system coordinates of the beam structure which undergoes large rotations and large deformations. Numerical examples show that the excellent agreements are examined between the presented formulation and the conventional absolute nodal coordinate formulation. These results demonstrate that the presented formulation has high accuracy in the sense that the presented solutions are similar to the conventional ones with the less system coordinates and high efficiency in computation.


Author(s):  
K Dufva ◽  
A A Shabana

The absolute nodal coordinate formulation can be used in multibody system applications where the rotation and deformation within the finite element are large and where there is a need to account for geometrical non-linearities. In this formulation, the gradients of the global positions are used as nodal coordinates and no rotations are interpolated over the finite element. For thin plate and shell elements, the plane stress conditions can be applied and only gradients obtained by differentiation with respect to the element mid-surface spatial parameters need to be defined. This automatically reduces the number of element degrees of freedoms, eliminates the high frequencies due to the oscillations of some gradient components along the element thickness, and as a result makes the plate element computationally more efficient. In this paper, the performance of a thin plate element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation is investigated. The lower dimension plate element used in this investigation allows for an arbitrary rigid body displacement and large deformation within the element. The element leads to a constant mass matrix and zero Coriolis and centrifugal forces. The performance of the element is compared with other plate elements previously developed using the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. It is shown that the finite element used in this investigation is much more efficient when compared with previously proposed elements in the case of thin structures. Numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the formulation developed in this paper and the computational advantages gained from using the thin plate element. The thin plate element examined in this study can be efficiently used in many applications including modelling of paper materials, belt drives, rotor dynamics, and tyres.


Author(s):  
Hui Ren

A simple but effective formulation of beams with large deformation and large rotation is derived from the principles of continuum mechanics. Proper assumptions are imposed, and the beam strain tensors are formulated from the Green strain tensors. The mass matrix is constant, and the elastic forces and the stiffness matrix entries are polynomials of the generalized coordinates, so numerical quadratures are not required in each time step of simulation, which makes the current approach much more superior in numerical efficiency than other formulations. The shape of the cross sections can be arbitrary, either uniform or nonuniform, and the beam can be either straight or curved. The generalized free of traction assumption ensures the strains in the cross section and the beam strains are independent, which resolves the Possion's locking issue and renders this approach can be accurately applied to general composite material beams. The elastic line approach (ELA) in the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) can be derived from the current formulation.


Author(s):  
Haidong Yu ◽  
Chunzhang Zhao ◽  
Bin Zheng ◽  
Hao Wang

The beam elements based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation are widely used in large deformation and large rotation problems. Some of them lead to shear and Poisson locking problems when the continuum mechanics method is employed to deduce the generalized elastic force of the element. To circumvent these locking problems, a new higher-order beam element is proposed that may capture the warping and non-uniform stretching distribution of the cross-section by introducing the trapezoidal cross-section deformation mode and increasing the order of interpolation polynomials in transverse direction. The curvature vectors are chosen as the nodal coordinates of the new element that improve the continuity condition at the element interface. Static and dynamic analyses are conducted to investigate the performance of the new element. Poisson locking phenomena may be eliminated effectively for the new element even when Poisson’s ratio is greater than zero. Meanwhile, the distortion deformation of the cross-section may be described directly. The new element has a better convergence performance compared with the spatial absolute nodal coordinate formulation beam element for that shear locking issue is eliminated. The results also show that the new element fulfills energy conservation and may be applied to the dynamics of both straight and initial curved structures with large deformation.


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