Finite element analysis 17ME61

Module-I

In the finite element method elements are grouped as 1D, 2D and 3D elements. Beams
and plates are grouped as structural elements. One dimensional elements are the line
segments which are used to model bars and truss. Higher order elements like linear,
quadratic and cubic are also available. These elements are used when one of the
dimension is very large compared to other two. 2D and 3D elements will be discussed in
later chapters.

Seven basic steps in Finite Element Method

These seven steps include
 Modeling
 Discretization
 Stiffness Matrix
 Assembly
 Application of BC’s
 Solution
 Results

Let’s consider a bar subjected to the forces as shown

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First step is the modeling lets us model it as a stepped shaft consisting of discrete
number of elements each having a uniform cross section. Say using three finite elements
as shown. Average c/s area within each region is evaluated and used to define elemental
area with uniform cross-section.

A1= A1’ + A2’ / 2 similarly A2 and A 3 are evaluated

Second step is the Discretization that includes both node and element numbering, in this
model every element connects two nodes, so to distinguish between node numbering and
element numbering elements numbers are encircled as shown.

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Above system can also be represented as a line segment as shown below.

Here in 1D every node is allowed to move only in one direction, hence each node as one
degree of freedom. In the present case the model as four nodes it means four dof. Let Q1,
Q2, Q3 and Q4 be the nodal displacements at node 1 to node 4 respectively, similarly F1,
F2, F3, F4 be the nodal force vector from node 1 to node 4 as shown. When these
parameters are represented for a entire structure use capitals which is called global
numbering and for representing individual elements use small letters that is called local
numbering as shown.

This local and global numbering correspondence is established using element

connectivity element as shown

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Now let’s consider a single element in a natural coordinate system that

varies in  and , x1 be the x coordinate of node 1 and x2 be the x
coordinate of node 2 as shown below.

Let us assume a polynomial

Now

After applying these conditions and solving for constants we have

a0=x1+x2/2 a1= x2-x1/2

Substituting these constants in above equation we get

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Where N1 and N2 are called shape functions also called as interpolation

functions.

These shape functions can also be derived using nodal displacements

say q1 and q2 which are nodal displacements at node1 and node 2
respectively, now assuming the displacement function and following
the same procedure as that of nodal coordinate we get

U = Nq

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U = Nq
Where N is the shape function matrix and q is displacement matrix.
Once the displacement is known its derivative gives strain and
corresponding stress can be determined as follows.

element strain displacement matrix

From the potential approach we have the expression of  as

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Third step in FEM is finding out stiffness matrix from the

above equation we have the value of K as

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But

Therefore now substituting the limits as -1 to +1 because the value of 

varies between -1 & 1 we have

Integration of above equations gives K which is given as

Fourth step is assembly and the size of the assembly matrix is given
by number of nodes X degrees of freedom, for the present example that
has four nodes and one degree of freedom at each node hence size of
the assembly matrix is 4 X 4. At first determine the stiffness matrix of
each element say k1, k2 and k3 as

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Similarly determine k2 and k3

The given system is modeled as three elements and four nodes we have
three stiffness matrices.

Since node 2 is connected between element 1 and element 2, the elements of second
stiffness matrix (k2) gets added to second row second element as shown below similarly
for node 3 it gets added to
third row third element

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Fifth step is applying the boundary conditions for a given system. We have the equation
of equilibrium KQ=F

K = global stiffness matrix Q =

displacement matrix F= global
force vector

Let Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 be the nodal displacements at node 1 to node 4 respectively. And
F1, F2, F3, F4 be the nodal load vector acting at node 1 to node 4 respectively.

Given system is fixed at one end and force is applied at other end. Since node 1 is fixed
displacement at node 1 will be zero, so set q1 =0. And node 2, node 3 and node 4 are free
to move hence there will be displacement that has to be determined. But in the load
vector because of fixed node 1 there will reaction force say R1. Now replace F1 to R1 and
also at node 3 force P is applied hence replace F3 to P. Rest of the terms are zero.

Sixth step is solving the above matrix to determine the displacements which can be solved
either by
 Elimination method
 Penalty approach method

Details of these two methods will be seen in later sections.

Last step is the presentation of results, finding the parameters like displacements,
stresses and other required parameter
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Rayleigh-Ritz Method
As discussed, one can solve axially loaded bars of arbitrary cross-section and material composition along
the length using the lumped mass-spring model. As shown in Figure 12 of Exercise 2.4, one can
approach the exact solution very closely by dividing the bar into more elements. One of the
disadvantages of the lumped models is that we can only compute the deflection at the locations of the
lumped masses (we call these points nodes), and we know nothing about what happens within the
element. Consequently, if we want to get the smooth shape of the deflection curve, we need to take a
very large number of elements. The Raleigh-Ritz method offers an alternative method to overcome these
problems. This method also uses the MPE principle.

Referring back to the tapering beam problem, what we were able to do with the lumped model is
essentially solving the governing differential equation that represents the deflection of axially loaded
bars. Our method of solution was of course numerical. It is worthwhile to study the differential equation
that we just solved numerically in Chapter 2.

Thus, the objectives of this Chapter are: (i) Derive the differential equation of an axially loaded
bar using the force-balance method (ii) Derive the same equation using the MPE principle (iii) Discuss
the Rayleigh-Ritz method.

Derivation of the governing differential equation of an axially loaded bar using the force-balance
method
Let A(x), the cross-section area of the bar at x, be given. There is a body-force (gravity-like force), f(x),
per unit volume of the bar. σ(x), the axial stress and u(x), the axial deflection, are two unknown
functions. We would like to derive a differential equation that describes the axially loaded bar so that we
can solve for σ(x) and u(x).

Consider a differential element of length dx at some x. The stress and area at the left end of the
differential element are σ(x) and A(x). At (x+dx), the right end, the same quantities can be approximated
dσ(x) dA(x)
as σ(x) + dx and A(x) + dx . The free-body-diagram of the infinitesimally small
dx dx
differential element shows that the internal forces (stresses multiplied by areas of cross-section) balance

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the body-force acting to the right. The body force acting on the differential element is given by f ( x) A( x
)dx . Let us now expand and simplify the internal force acting to the right.

dσ(x) dA(x)
σ(x) + dx A(x) + dx
dx dx 0

= σ(x) A(x) +σ(x) dA(x) dx + A(x) dσ(x)

dσ(x) dA(x) 2
dx + dx (1)

dx dx dx dx

The last term in the above expression is a small second-order term and hence it can be ignored as shown
stricken by an arrow in Equation (1). The first term balances the internal force acting on the left end of the
differential element. So, the second and third terms and the body-force term should sum to zero for
equilibrium

σ(x) dA(x) dx + A(x) dσ(x) dx + f (x) A(x)dx = 0 (2a)

dx dx

You can easily check that after canceling dx although in the above equation, the two terms on the left
hand side can be collapsed as one term as shown below.

d (σ (x) A(x))
+ f (x) A(x)dx = 0 (2)
dx

This leads to the following differential equation in σ(x).

d
(σ (x) A(x))+ f (x) A(x) = 0 (3)
dx

Next, we would like to express u(x) in terms of σ(x) so that we can get the governing differential
equation in u(x). From the definition of axial strain (change in length divide by the original length), we
du (x)
get the following expression for strain, ε(x) = dx , where du(x) is the deflection of the differential

element of length dx. We also know the relationship between stress and strain: σ(x) = E ε(x) where E is

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the Young’s modulus. By substituting these relationships into Equation (3), we get the governing
differential equation:

A(x)

f(x)
x dx

Figure 1 Force balance of a differential element in an axially loaded bar

We had observed in Chapter 2 that the equilibrium equations could be written using the force balance
method as well as the MPE principle. For the continuous model of an axially loaded bar, we just
derived the equilibrium differential equation using the force-balance method. We will obtain the same
equation using the MPE principle now.

Derivation of the governing equation using the MPE principle

In this method, first we need to write down the PE of the system. Since this is a continuous model, both
SE and WP are integrals over the length of the bar. Note that

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By denoting du(x) by u′, the PE can be written as the sum of SE and WP.

As before, we have to minimize PE with respect to the deformation variables. Here, the deflection
variable, u(x) is a continuous function, and the PE is an integral. In fact, PE in Equation (7) is called a
functional in this case an integral relation of some function u(x).
Next we will show that if PE is minimized with respect to all kinematically admissible displacement
u(x), then that u(x) satisfies the differential equation (4). To show this, consider the kinematically
admissible displacement u (x) = u(x) +αδu(x) where the variation from the exact solution u(x) is given
by the function δu(x) times the parameter α . Since u (x) must satisfy the same kinematical boundary
conditions as u(x), it follows that δu(x = 0) = 0. With u (x) substituted in the place of u(x) in the PE
expression in Equation (7), for a given δu(x) , we can regard the potential energy to be a function of the
parameter α , i.e., PE(α) . Then, minimizing PE(α) with respect to α and setting α = 0 gives the desired
governing differential equation:

Integrating the expression in the last equation by parts and using the boundary conditions on δu(x) , we
arrive at (note: we substitute u′ = du(x) to get back to our original notation)

Since this last integral must vanish for all kinematically admissible δu when the potential energy of the
deformed beam is minimized, it follows that the integrand itself must vanish, i.e.:
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Once again, the MPE principle gave us the solution with less work and more systematically as
compared to the force-balance method. It is systematic in the following sense. If you were to derive the
governing equilibrium differential equation for a beam, all you need is its PE, as opposed to the
forcebalance method where you need to know much more about the internal forces. Much of the
theoretical basis for the finite element method is rooted in the method we used above. In particular,
Equation (10) is a fundamental equation in calculus of variations – an important mathematical tool in
FEM formulations. Refer to any book on calculus of variations for more details. References to two
books are given in the bibliography at the end.

Exercise 3.4
Comfy Beds, Inc. is considering a new design for the box-spring system. It consists of top and bottom
grids of thin strips of metal connected by linear helical springs. A portion of this new box-spring system
is shown in the figure. Use Rayleigh-Ritz method to determine the maximum deflections of the top and
bottom beams. (see Figure 3).

y1 = a1 x1 (x1 −l1 )
Use as the basis functions where y1 and y2 are the deformations of the top and
2
y2 = −a2 x2
bottom beams respectively. x1 and x2 are zero at the left end of each beam.
(a) Do the above basis functions satisfy the kinematic admissibility conditions? Explain how.

L EI 2 y2
(b) The strain energy for a beam is given by ∫ 2
dx . Write the total strain energy stored in the
0 2dx
two beams and the spring in terms of a1 and a2.

+ What is the work potential due to the applied force, F of 5 lb? (again in terms of a1 and a2).

+ Use the principle of the minimum potential energy to find the equilibrium values of a1 and a2.

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Both beams have rectangular cross-section of thickness 0.1 in and a width of 1 in. The Young's modulus
is 30E6 psi, and the spring constant, k is 10 lb/in. The applied force F is 5 lb. l1 and l2 are respectively 40
in and 30 in.

l1/2 l1/2

Force = F

C
A B

D
E

l2

Figure 3 The schematic of the springs used by Comfy Beds, Inc.

The Rayleigh-Ritz method is a powerful method to use if we know a priori, the nature of
the function for the deformation. However, we may not be able to guess such a function or several piece-
wise functions for any given problem. The FEM enables us to come up with such functions
systematically. Those functions are called shape functions. They serve the following purpose.

• Approximate the continuous deformation using piece-wise functions defined over elements.
• Shape functions depend on some scalar quantities and those scalar quantities are nothing
but the value of the deformation at the nodes.
• Interpolation, i.e., knowing what happens within the element is readily available
through shape functions

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The following Table summarizes the basic concepts we laid out in Chapters 2 and 3. In
the next chapter, we will study the shape functions and apply this concept to the axially loaded
bars once again. This is the real beginning of our FEM discussion.

Table 1 Comparison of three approaches to deformation analysis

Lumped-model Rayleigh-Ritz FEM
Discretization Divide into segments Discretization concept In principle, it is the
(“element”). The is different. You do same as the lumped
value of the convert a continuous model, i.e., the
deformation at the problem into a discretization is
discrete points discrete problem. But, physical.
(“nodes”) are the the discrete (scalar)
unknown scalar unknowns are
quantities to be coefficients of the
determined using the assumed polynomials
MPE principle. (basis functions).
Interpolation Not possible. You need to know the The procedure is
nature of the function systematic.
so that you can
approximate the Shape functions are
deformation curve used for interpolation
with one or more trial locally for small
(guess) functions elements.
globally.

The procedure is not

systematic.

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