Shell analysis is a well-established field, but achieving optimal higher-order convergence rates for such simulations is a difficult challenge. We present an isogeometric Kirchhoff-Love shell framework that treats every numerical aspect in a consistent higher-order accurate way. In particular, a single trimmed B-spline surface provides a sufficiently smooth geometry, and the non-symmetric Nitsche method enforces the boundary conditions. A higher-order accurate reparametrization of cut knot spans in the parameter space provides a robust, higher-order accurate quadrature for (multiple) trimming curves, and the extended B-spline concept controls the conditioning of the resulting system of equations. Besides these components ensuring all requirements for higher-order accuracy, the presented shell formulation is based on tangential differential calculus, and level-set functions define the trimming curves. Numerical experiments confirm that the approach yields higher-order convergence rates, given that the solution is sufficiently smooth.
We propose a local type of B-bar formulation, addressing locking in degenerated Reissner-Mindlin plate and shell formulations in the context of isogeometric analysis. Parasitic strain components are projected onto the physical space locally, i.e. at the element level, using a least-squares approach. The formulation allows the flexible utilization of basis functions of different order as the projection bases. The present formulation is much cheaper computationally than the classical $\bar{B}$ method. We show the numerical consistency of the scheme through numerical examples, moreover they show …
We propose a frictionless contact formulation for isogeometric analysis, which combines a collocated formulation for the contact surfaces with a standard Galerkin treatment of the bulk. We denote it as isogeometric Collocated Contact Surface (CCS) formulation. The approach is based on a simple pointwise enforcement of the contact constraints, performed in this study with the penalty method. Unlike pointwise (node-to-surface or point-to-surface) contact algorithms in the Galerkin framework, the CCS formulation passes the contact patch test to machine precision by naturally exploiting the favora…
In this paper, we take a fresh look at using spectral analysis for assessing locking phenomena in finite element formulations. We propose to "measure" locking by comparing the difference between eigenvalue and mode error curves computed on coarse meshes with "asymptotic" error curves computed on "overkill" meshes, both plotted with respect to the normalized mode number. To demonstrate the intimate relation between membrane locking and spectral accuracy, we focus on the example of a circular ring discretized with isogeometric curved Euler-Bernoulli beam elements. We show that the transverse-dis…
This work presents a numerical formulation to model isotropic viscoelastic material behavior for membranes and thin shells. The surface and the shell theory are formulated within a curvilinear coordinate system, which allows the representation of general surfaces and deformations. The kinematics follow from Kirchhoff-Love theory and the discretization makes use of isogeometric shape functions. A multiplicative split of the surface deformation gradient is employed, such that an intermediate surface configuration is introduced. The surface metric and curvature of this intermediate configuration …
This work presents a Finite Element Model Updating inverse methodology for reconstructing heterogeneous material distributions based on an efficient isogeometric shell formulation. It uses nonlinear hyperelastic material models suitable for describing incompressible material behavior as well as initially curved shells. The material distribution is discretized by bilinear elements such that the nodal values are the design variables to be identified. Independent FE analysis and material discretization, as well as flexible incorporation of experimental data, offer high robustness and control. Thr…
This work presents numerical techniques to enforce continuity constraints on multi-patch surfaces for three distinct problem classes. The first involves structural analysis of thin shells that are described by general Kirchhoff-Love kinematics. Their governing equation is a vector-valued, fourth-order, nonlinear, partial differential equation (PDE) that requires at least $C^1$-continuity within a displacement-based finite element formulation. The second class are surface phase separations modeled by a phase field. Their governing equation is the Cahn-Hilliard equation - a scalar, fourth-order,…
This paper presents three different constitutive approaches to model thin rotation-free shells based on the Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis. One approach is based on numerical integration through the shell thickness while the other two approaches do not need any numerical integration and so they are computationally more efficient. The formulation is designed for large deformations and allows for geometrical and material nonlinearities, which makes it very suitable for the modeling of soft tissues. Furthermore, six different isotropic and anisotropic material models, which are commonly used to model …
A geometrically exact membrane formulation is presented that is based on curvilinear coordinates and isogeometric finite elements, and is suitable for both solid and liquid membranes. The curvilinear coordinate system is used to describe both the theory and the finite element equations of the membrane. In the latter case this avoids the use of local cartesian coordinates at the element level. Consequently, no transformation of derivatives is required. The formulation considers a split of the in-plane and out-of-plane membrane contributions, which allows the construction of a stable formulation…
This paper presents a new isogeometric mortar contact formulation based on an extended finite element interpolation to capture physical pressure discontinuities at the contact boundary. The so called two-half-pass algorithm is employed, which leads to an unbiased formulation and, when applied to the mortar setting, has the additional advantage that the mortar coupling term is no longer present in the contact forces. As a result, the computationally expensive segmentation at overlapping master-slave element boundaries, usually required in mortar methods (although often simplified with loss of a…
This work presents a concise theoretical and computational framework for the finite element formulation of frictional contact problems with arbitrarily large deformation and sliding. The aim of this work is to extend the contact theory based on surface potentials (Sauer and De Lorenzis, 2013) to account for friction. Coulomb friction under isothermal conditions is considered here. For a consistent friction formulation, we start with the first and second laws of thermodynamics and derive the governing equations at the contact interface. A so-called interacting gap can then be defined as a kinem…
A novel geometrically exact model of the spatially curved Bernoulli-Euler beam is developed. The formulation utilizes the Frenet-Serret frame as the reference for updating the orientation of a cross section. The weak form is consistently derived and linearized, including the contributions from kinematic constraints and configuration-dependent load. The nonlinear terms with respect to the cross-sectional coordinates are strictly considered, and the obtained constitutive model is scrutinized. The main features of the formulation are invariance with respect to the rigid-body motion, path-independ…
An isogeometric finite element formulation for geometrically and materially nonlinear Timoshenko beams is presented, which incorporates in-plane deformation of the cross-section described by two extensible director vectors. Since those directors belong to the space ${\Bbb R}^3$, a configuration can be additively updated. The developed formulation allows direct application of nonlinear three-dimensional constitutive equations without zero stress conditions. Especially, the significance of considering correct surface loads rather than applying an equivalent load directly on the central axis is i…
We present a geometrically exact nonlinear analysis of elastic in-plane beams in the context of finite but small strain theory. The formulation utilizes the full beam metric and obtains the complete analytic elastic constitutive model by employing the exact relation between the reference and equidistant strains. Thus, we account for the nonlinear strain distribution over the thickness of a beam. In addition to the full analytical constitutive model, four simplified ones are presented. Their comparison provides a thorough examination of the influence of a beam's metric on the structural respons…
When applying isogeometric analysis to engineering problems, one often deals with multi-patch spline spaces that have incompatible discretisations, e.g. in the case of moving objects. In such cases mortaring has been shown to be advantageous. This contribution discusses the appropriate B-spline spaces needed for the solution of Maxwell's equations in the functions space H(curl) and the corresponding mortar spaces. The main contribution of this paper is to show that in formulations requiring gauging, as in the vector potential formulation of magnetostatic equations, one can remove the discrete …
We present a theoretical and computational framework based on fractional calculus for the analysis of the nonlocal static response of cylindrical shell panels. The differ-integral nature of fractional derivatives allows an efficient and accurate methodology to account for the effect of long-range (nonlocal) interactions in curved structures. More specifically, the use of frame-invariant fractional-order kinematic relations enables a physically, mathematically, and thermodynamically consistent formulation to model the nonlocal elastic interactions. In order to evaluate the response of these non…
G-splines are a generalization of B-splines that deals with extraordinary points by imposing G^1 constraints across their spoke edges, thus obtaining a continuous tangent plane throughout the surface. Using the isoparametric concept and the Bubnov-Galerkin method to solve partial differential equations with G-splines results in discretizations with global C^1 continuity in physical space. Extraordinary points (EPs) are required to represent manifold surfaces with arbitrary topological genus. In this work, we allow both interior and boundary EPs and there are no limitations regarding how close …
A computational model for short-range van der Waals interactions between beams and shells
Graz University of Technology（格拉茨工业大学）；University of Banja Luka（班亚卢卡大学）；Ruhr University Bochum（波鸿鲁尔大学）；Gdansk University of Technology（格但斯克理工大学）；Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati（印度理工学院古瓦哈提分校）
An existing hyperelastic membrane model for graphene calibrated from ab-initio data (Kumar and Parks, 2014) is adapted to curvilinear coordinates and extended to a rotation-free shell formulation based on isogeometric finite elements. Therefore, the membrane model is extended by a hyperelastic bending model that reflects the ab-inito data of Kudin et al. (2001). The proposed formulation can be implemented straight-forwardly into an existing finite element package, since it does not require the description of molecular interactions. It thus circumvents the use of interatomic potentials that ten…
