ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering M. Papadrakakis, D.C. Charmpis, N.D.

Lagaros, Y. Tsompanakis (eds.) Rethymno, Crete, Greece, 13-16 June 2007

AN APPROACH TO THE DYNAMIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF THICK- OR THIN-WALLED BEAM-LIKE STRUCTURES
Elias A. Mpougaidis1 , Elias A. Paraskevopoulos1 , and Demosthenes G. Talaslidis1
University Thessaloniki Civil Engineering Department Mail Stop 502 - 54124 Thessaloniki - Greece e-mail: talaslid@civil.auth.gr
1 Aristotle

Keywords: Structural Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis, Beam-Like Structures, Thick-/Thinwalled Structures, Hu-Washizu Principle. Abstract. In this paper, a methodology is presented for the dynamic nite element analysis of elongated structures with thick- or thin-walled cross-sections of arbitrary geometric conguration. The cross-section is represented as a combination of individual components. It is assumed that the fundamental structural behavior of the structure is governed by the response along its longitudinal axis that is considered as the behavior of a beam. Cross-sectional deformations and other effects can be described by considering the walls of the individual component as three-dimensional solids or at shells. The deformations of the cross-section are expressed relative to the deformations of the longitudinal axis. Furthermore, the coupling between the fundamental response and the secondary effects are also taken into account. In the case of thin-walled structures, the effect of transverse shear deformations is also included in the formulation. A version of the generalized principle of Hu-Washizu serves as a starting point for the discretization. Also, the kinetic energy is formulated in such a way that the inuence of the fundamental behavior can be separated from any secondary effects. In order to simplify the derivation, the approximations introduced for the displacement elds describing the deformations of the walls do not consider the fact that these elds represent deformations relative to the displacements of the beam. As a result, linear dependencies are present, which can be taken into account by considering the weak form of these dependencies via Lagrange multipliers. Appropriate assumptions for the strain and stress elds lead to simple three-dimensional/at shell nite elements for the walls, which can be implemented in existing software packages in a convenient way. In comparison with a conventional analysis in space via three-dimensional or at shell elements, the proposed approach reduces the computational cost while the behavior of the structure is described more realistically then using beam elements or other approximate methods. Numerical results for characteristic examples are presented and comparisons with other approaches are made.

Elias A. Mpougaidis, Elias A. Paraskevopoulos and Demosthenes G. Talaslidis

INTRODUCTION

A series of structures or structural elements (e.g., bridges, structural cores, etc.) is characterised by the fact that their dimension in the longitudinal direction is much larger than their dimensions in the other directions. These elongated structures may have thick- or thin-walled cross-sections of arbitrary geometric conguration and may exhibit a complicated structural behaviour, the description of which requires consideration of additional effects such as warping, ovalization or other deformations of the cross-section. In this paper, a methodology is presented for the dynamic nite element analysis of elongated structures with thick- or thin-walled cross-sections of arbitrary geometric conguration. The cross-section is represented as a combination of individual components. It is assumed that the fundamental structural behavior of the structure is governed by the response along its longitudinal axis that is considered as the behavior of a beam. Cross-sectional deformations and other additional effects such as warping can be described by considering the walls of the individual component as three-dimensional solids or at shells. The deformations of the cross-section are expressed relative to the deformations of the longitudinal axis. Furthermore, the coupling between the fundamental response and the secondary effects are also taken into account. In the case of thin-walled structures, the relationships describing the behavior of individual components are obtained by specializing the equations of the three-dimensional continuum and by introducing appropriate assumptions for the kinematics and the stress/strain distribution. The effect of transverse shear deformations is also included in the formulation [1]. A version of the generalized principle of Hu-Washizu serves as a starting point for the discretization. Also, the kinetic energy is formulated in such a way that the inuence of the fundamental behavior can be separated from any secondary effects, thus resulting in simplied expressions. In order to simplify the derivation, the approximations introduced for the displacement elds describing the deformations of the walls do not consider the fact that these elds represent deformations relative to the displacements of the beam. As a result, linear dependencies are present, which can be taken into account by considering the weak form of these dependencies via Lagrange multipliers [2]. Appropriate assumptions for the strain and stress elds lead to simple three-dimensional/at shell nite elements for the walls, which can be implemented in existing software packages in a convenient way. Due to the simplicity of the formulation, super-elements for various crosssectional shapes can readily be derived and implemented. In comparison with a conventional analysis in space via three-dimensional or at shell elements, the proposed approach reduces the computational cost while the behavior of the structure is described more realistically then using beam elements or other approximate methods. The proposed approach can be extended in a straightforward manner to include also nonlinear effects. Numerical results for characteristic examples are presented and comparisons with other approaches are made. REFERENCES [1] G.A. Wempner, D.G. Talaslidis, Mechanics of solids and shells: Theories and approximations. CRC Press, 2003. [2] E.A. Mpougaidis, E.A. Paraskevopoulos, D.G. Talaslidis, A nite element model for the dynamic analysis of thick- or thin-walled beam-like stuctures. In preparation, to be submitted for publication, 2007.