Equations Of Linear Elasticity Research Articles

Numerical analysis of the stress‐based formulation of linear elasticity

AbstractThe Beltrami–Michell equations of linear elasticity differ from the Navier–Cauchy equations, in that the primary field in former equations is the stress tensor rather than the displacement vector. Consequently, the equations can be used for circumstances where the displacement field is not of interest, for example in design, or when increased smoothness of the solution of the stress tensor is desired. In this work, we explore the stress‐based Beltrami–Michell equations for isotropic linear elastic materials. We introduce the equations in modern tensor notation and investigate their limitations. Further, we demonstrate how to symmetrise and stabilise their weak formulation, complemented by existence and uniqueness proofs. With latter at hand, we construct a conforming finite element discretisation of the equations, avoiding the need for intermediate stress functions. Finally, we present some numerical examples.

Numerical study of liquid sloshing in three-dimensional flexible cylindrical tank under multi-directional seismic excitation

The present study aims to evaluate the effect of the flexibility of three-dimensional (3D) cylindrical tank on liquid sloshing inside the tank as well as the influence of the hydrodynamic forces on the structure's deformation. A ground-supported cylindrical flexible tank filled with water and subjected to seismic excitation is investigated using a numerical coupling methodology to take into account the fluid–structure interactions. The Navier–Stokes equations in the fluid domain are solved using the finite volume method, while the finite element method is used to solve the linear-elastic equations of the structure. The arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation is applied for the moving mesh in two-phase flow system. The simulations are conducted using free open-source software: OpenFOAM for fluid dynamics and FEniCS for solid mechanics, both utilize the preCICE library for data exchanging and fluid–structure coupling. The numerical methodology is validated by the experimental and numerical results given in literature. A multi-directional earthquake ground motion is then considered as external loading, and the elasticity of the tank wall is varied to investigate the effect on the fluid sloshing. It has been shown that the more flexible the tank walls are, the greater will be both the sloshing height and the structural deformations during an earthquake event. Several flow field information and structural responses have been provided, such as the sloshing height, hydrodynamic pressure, structure deformations, and structural stress distribution. The potential elephant's foot buckling phenomenon at the lower part of tank can also be predicted.

Evaluation of Wellbore Stability by Small Parameter Perturbation Nonlinear Elastoplastic Model

Abstract Wellbore instability is a frequent occurrence during drilling and a popular research topic among petroleum workers. Most of the previous studies simplified the hardening stage and ignored or classified it into the elastic stage. Engineering practice shows that the total stress–strain process of rock can more truly reflect the bearing and deformation characteristics of rock. This study establishes a total stress–strain constitutive model by combining the perturbation index equation with the linear elastic equation. Additionally, the physical model of rock around the well is presented using the total deformation theory for the plastic zone. The stress field of the rock surrounding the well is analyzed based on the physical model of the rock surrounding the well, taking into account the influence of rock strength and geostress state. The relationship between rock strength, geostress state, drilling fluid density, and plastic radius is given. The calculation method of drilling fluid density limit is also given. The practical application demonstrates that the stability of a borehole wall can be evaluated by analyzing the size and direction of the plastic radius, as well as the distribution of radial, tangential, and shear stress for various combinations of stress states and rock strengths. The maximum shear stress is always found in the softening zone, which is also the region where wellbore instability is most likely to happen. Therefore, the area within the softening radius is regarded as an unstable area, and the softening radius can be used to determine the range of wellbore instability.

Numerical Analysis of the Cylindrical Shell Pipe with Preformed Holes Subjected to a Compressive Load Using Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines and T-Splines for an Isogeometric Analysis Approach

In this paper, we implement the finite detail technique primarily based on T-Splines for approximating solutions to the linear elasticity equations in the connected and bounded Lipschitz domain. Both theoretical and numerical analyses of the Dirichlet and Neumann boundary problems are presented. The Reissner–Mindlin (RM) hypothesis is considered for the investigation of the mechanical performance of a 3D cylindrical shell pipe without and with preformed hole problems under concentrated and compression loading in the linear elastic behavior for trimmed and untrimmed surfaces in structural engineering problems. Bézier extraction from T-Splines is integrated for an isogeometric analysis (IGA) approach. The numerical results obtained, particularly for the displacement and von Mises stress, are compared with and validated against the literature results, particularly with those for Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) IGA and the finite element method (FEM) Abaqus methods. The obtained results show that the computation time of the IGA based on the T-Spline method is shorter than that of the IGA NURBS and FEM Abaqus/CAE (computer-aided engineering) methods. Furthermore, the highlighted results confirm that the IGA approach based on the T-Spline method shows more success than numerical reference methods. We observed that the NURBS IGA method is very limited for studying trimmed surfaces. The T-Spline method shows its power and capability in computing trimmed and untrimmed surfaces.

Two-Dimensional Linear Elasticity Equations of Thermo-Piezoelectric Semiconductor Thin-Film Devices and Their Application in Static Characteristic Analysis

Two-Dimensional Linear Elasticity Equations of Thermo-Piezoelectric Semiconductor Thin-Film Devices and Their Application in Static Characteristic Analysis

Experimental Investigation of Low-Frequency Distributed Acoustic Sensor Responses to Two Parallel Propagating Fractures.

Low-frequency distributed acoustic sensing (LF-DAS) is a diagnostic tool for hydraulic fracture propagation with far-field monitoring using fiber optic sensors. LF-DAS senses strain rate variation caused by stress field change due to fracture propagation. Fiber optic sensors are installed in the monitoring wells in the vicinity of a fractured well. From the strain responses, fracture propagation can be evaluated. To understand subsurface conditions with multiple propagating fractures, a laboratory-scale hydraulic fracture experiment was performed simulating the LF-DAS response to fracture propagation with embedded distributed optical fiber strain sensors under these conditions. The experiment was performed using a transparent cube of epoxy with two parallel radial initial flaws centered in the cube. Fluid was injected into the sample to generate fractures along the initial flaws. The experiment used distributed high-definition fiber optic strain sensors with tight spatial resolutions. The sensors were embedded at two different locations on opposite sides of the initial flaws, serving as observation/monitoring locations. We also employed finite element modeling to numerically solve the linear elastic equations of equilibrium continuity and stress-strain relationships. The measured strains from the experiment were compared to simulation results from the finite element model. The experimentally derived strain and strain-rate waterfall plots from this study show the responses to both fractures propagating, while the fracture at the lower position took most of the fluid during the experiment. Interestingly, a fracture first began propagating from the upper flaw of the two flaws, but once the lower fracture was initiated, it grew much faster than the upper fracture. Both fibers were intercepted by the lower fracture, further verifying the strain signature as a fracture is approaching and intersecting an offset fiber.

A finite element framework for fluid–structure interaction of turbulent cavitating flows with flexible structures

We present a finite element framework for the numerical prediction of cavitating turbulent flows interacting with flexible structures. The vapor–fluid phases are captured through a homogeneous mixture model, with a scalar transport equation governing the spatio-temporal evolution of cavitation dynamics. High-density gradients in the two-phase cavitating flow motivate the use of a positivity-preserving Petrov–Galerkin stabilization method in the variational framework. A mass transfer source term introduces local compressibility effects arising as a consequence of phase change. The turbulent fluid flow is modeled through a dynamic subgrid-scale method for large eddy simulations. The flexible structure is represented by a set of eigenmodes, obtained through a modal decomposition of the linear elasticity equations. While a partitioned iterative approach is adopted to couple the structural dynamics and cavitating fluid flow, the deforming flow domain is described by an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian frame of reference. We establish the fidelity of the proposed framework by comparing it against experimental and numerical studies for both rigid and flexible hydrofoils in cavitating flows. Under unstable partial cavitating conditions, we identify specific vortical structures leading to cloud cavity collapse. We further explore features of cavitating flow past a rigid body such as re-entrant jet and turbulence-cavity interactions during cloud cavity collapse. Based on the validation study conducted over a flexible NACA66 rectangular hydrofoil, we elucidate the role of cavity and vortex shedding in governing the structural dynamics. Subsequently, we identify a broad spectrum frequency band whose central peak does not correlate to the frequency content of the cavitation dynamics or the natural frequencies of the structure, indicating the induction of unsteady flow patterns around the hydrofoil. Finally, we discuss the coupled fluid–structure dynamics during a cavitation cycle and the underlying mechanism associated with the promotion and mitigation of cavitation.

A global space–time Trefftz DG scheme for the time-dependent isotropic elastic wave equations

In this paper we are concerned with Trefftz discretizations of the time-dependent linear elastic wave equation in arbitrary space dimensional domains Ω⊂Rd(d∈N). We propose a Trefftz discontinuous Galerkin method, construct Trefftz basis functions and prove that the corresponding approximate solutions possess optimal-order error estimates with respect to the meshwidth. A space–time domain decomposition preconditioner is introduced for the system generated by the proposed variational formula. Besides, we propose the global Trefftz DG method combined with local DG methods to solve the nonhomogeneous model. The numerical results verify the validity of the theoretical results, and show that the resulting approximate solutions possess high accuracy, and the proposed preconditioner is effective.

Gradient preserving Operator Inference: Data-driven reduced-order models for equations with gradient structure

Hamiltonian Operator Inference has been introduced in Sharma et al. (2022) to learn structure-preserving reduced-order models (ROMs) for Hamiltonian systems. This approach constructs a low-dimensional model using only data and knowledge of the Hamiltonian function. Such ROMs can keep the intrinsic structure of the system, allowing them to capture the physics described by the governing equations. In this work, we extend this approach to more general systems that are either conservative or dissipative in energy, and which possess a gradient structure. We derive the optimization problems for inferring structure-preserving ROMs that preserve the gradient structure. We further derive an a priori error estimate for the reduced-order approximation. To test the algorithms, we consider semi-discretized partial differential equations with gradient structure, such as the parameterized wave and Korteweg–de-Vries equations, and equations of three-dimensional linear elasticity in the conservative case and the one- and two-dimensional Allen-Cahn equations in the dissipative case. The numerical results illustrate the accuracy, structure-preservation properties, and predictive capabilities of the gradient-preserving Operator Inference ROMs.

A thin-plate approximation for ocean wave interactions with an ice shelf

A variational principle is proposed to derive the governing equations for the problem of ocean wave interactions with a floating ice shelf, where the ice shelf is modelled by the full linear equations of elasticity and has an Archimedean draught. The variational principle is used to form a thin-plate approximation for the ice shelf, which includes water–ice coupling at the shelf front and extensional waves in the shelf, in contrast to the benchmark thin-plate approximation for ocean wave interactions with an ice shelf. The thin-plate approximation is combined with a single-mode approximation in the water, where the vertical motion is constrained to the eigenfunction that supports propagating waves. The new terms in the approximation are shown to have a major impact on predictions of ice shelf strains for wave periods in the swell regime.

A Model for Simulating the Upward Flow of a Viscous Fluid in a Fracture Network

Fluid migration in a fracture network plays an important role in the oil accumulation mechanism and hence is key to oil exploration. In this study, we build a model by combining one-dimensional (1D) Navier–Stokes equations, linear elastic equations, and energy equations, and validate the model by reproducing the thickness profile of a fluid-driven crack measured in an experiment. We employ this model to simulate the upward flow of viscous fluid in a single fracture during hydrocarbon migration. The simulation suggests that the parameters of both the fluid and the surrounding rock matrix, as well as the boundary condition imposed on the fracture outlet, affect the upward flow in the fracture. We then extend our model from the single fracture to the bifurcated fracture and the fracture network by maintaining homogeneous pressure and mass conservation at the connection of the channels. We find that the increase in network complexity leads to an increase in the inlet pressure gradient and inlet speed, and a decrease in the outlet pressure gradient and outlet speed. The effective area where the fluid is driven upward from the inlet to the outlet is offset toward the inlet. More importantly, the main novelty of our model is that it allows us to evaluate the effect of inconsistencies in individual branch parameters, such as matrix stiffness, permeability, temperature, and boundary conditions, on the overall upward flow of viscous fluid. Our results suggest that the heterogeneity enforces the greater impact on the closer branches.

An ANS/ATFs‐based unsymmetric solid‐shell finite element algorithm for high‐quality finite deformation analysis of hyper‐elastic shell

AbstractAn effective updated Lagrangian (UL) algorithm is designed for extending the recent distortion‐tolerant unsymmetric 8‐node, 24‐DOF hexahedral solid‐shell element, US‐ATFHS8, to finite deformation analysis of hyper‐elastic shell structures. The distinguishing feature of this unsymmetric element is that two different interpolation schemes are employed for virtual displacement and real stress calculations, respectively. The assumed natural strain (ANS) method with shell assumptions, referring to the current configuration, is introduced to modify the strain tensors derived from the assumed virtual displacement fields in terms of isoparametric coordinates, thereby mitigating shear locking and trapezoidal locking. On the other hand, the analytical trial functions (ATFs) derived from the general solutions of homogenous governing equations for linear elasticity are updated in each increment step to obtain the incremental deformation gradient, which is then utilized for calculating the real stresses for curing the numerical difficulties in large deformation problems. Numerical examples show that the proposed algorithm enables the hyper‐elastic solid‐shell element US‐ATFHS8 to exhibit excellent performance in both regular and distorted meshes and yield considerable results even when other models cannot work.

Penalty‐free discontinuous Galerkin method

AbstractIn this article, we present a new high‐order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method, in which neither a penalty parameter nor a stabilization parameter is needed. We refer to this method as penalty‐free DG. In this method, the trial and test functions belong to the broken Sobolev space, in which the functions are in general discontinuous on the mesh skeleton and do not meet the Dirichlet boundary conditions. However, a subset can be distinguished in this space, where the functions are continuous and satisfy the Dirichlet boundary conditions, and this subset is called admissible. The trial solution is chosen to lie in an augmented admissible subset, in which a small violation of the continuity condition is permitted. This subset is constructed by applying special augmented constraints to the linear combination of finite element basis functions. In this approach, all the advantages of the DG method are retained without the necessity of using stability parameters or numerical fluxes. Several benchmark problems in two dimensions (Poisson equation, linear elasticity, hyperelasticity, and biharmonic equation) on polygonal (triangles, quadrilateral, and weakly convex polygons) meshes as well as a three‐dimensional Poisson problem on hexahedral meshes are considered. Numerical results are presented that affirm the sound accuracy and optimal convergence of the method in the norm and the energy seminorm.

Adaptive [formula omitted]-matrix computations in linear elasticity

This article deals with the efficient numerical treatment of the Lamé equations. The equations of linear elasticity are considered as boundary integral equations and solved in the setting of the boundary element method (BEM). Using BEM, one is faced with the solution of a system of equations with a fully populated system matrix, which is in general very costly. In order to overcome this difficulty, adaptive and approximate algorithms based on hierarchical matrices and the adaptive cross approximation are proposed. These new methods rely on error estimators and refinement techniques known from adaptivity but are not used here to improve the mesh. We apply these new techniques to both, the efficient solution of Lamé equations and to the multiplication with given data.

Numerical investigation of liquid sloshing in 2D flexible tanks subjected to complex external loading

Due to the complexity of fluid–structure interactions (FSI), the majority of studies in the literature dealing with the sloshing problem are restricted to rigid tanks. This paper is devoted to a numerical investigation of the liquid sloshing behavior in a flexible tank subjected to external loading. A numerical methodology is proposed, taking into account the FSI problem by coupling two open-source codes: OpenFOAM for the fluid and FEniCS for the solid, using the preCICE library, a free library for fluid–structure interaction. The Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation is used for the two-phase flow system to solve the Navier–Stokes equations in the fluid domain using the finite volume method. Simultaneously, the linear-elastic equation of the structure is solved using the finite element method. An implicit coupling scheme is considered at the fluid–structure interface. The numerical methodology is validated by the results given in literature for harmonic excitation at different frequencies. Subsequently, an analysis of complex external loading, such as Gabor wavelets and earthquake ground motion, is conducted to highlight the significant impact of the wall flexibility on sloshing, as well as the influence of hydrodynamic forces on the structure’s deformation. The proposed coupling methodology is robust and effective, it can be applied to all types of liquids and materials. A dataset of one of the studied cases is given as a supplement to the paper (Kha et al., 2024).

Discovering interpretable physical models using symbolic regression and discrete exterior calculus

Computational modeling is a key resource to gather insight into physical systems in modern scientific research and engineering. While access to large amount of data has fueled the use of machine learning to recover physical models from experiments and increase the accuracy of physical simulations, purely data-driven models have limited generalization and interpretability. To overcome these limitations, we propose a framework that combines symbolic regression (SR) and discrete exterior calculus (DEC) for the automated discovery of physical models starting from experimental data. Since these models consist of mathematical expressions, they are interpretable and amenable to analysis, and the use of a natural, general-purpose discrete mathematical language for physics favors generalization with limited input data. Importantly, DEC provides building blocks for the discrete analog of field theories, which are beyond the state-of-the-art applications of SR to physical problems. Further, we show that DEC allows to implement a strongly-typed SR procedure that guarantees the mathematical consistency of the recovered models and reduces the search space of symbolic expressions. Finally, we prove the effectiveness of our methodology by re-discovering three models of continuum physics from synthetic experimental data: Poisson equation, the Euler’s elastica and the equations of linear elasticity. Thanks to their general-purpose nature, the methods developed in this paper may be applied to diverse contexts of physical modeling.

An analytic model for the flow induced in syringomyelia cavities.

A simple two-dimensional fluid-structure-interaction problem, involving viscous oscillatory flow in a channel separated by an elastic membrane from a fluid-filled slender cavity, is analyzed to shed light on the flow dynamics pertaining to syringomyelia, a neurological disorder characterized by the appearance of a large tubular cavity (syrinx) within the spinal cord. The focus is on configurations in which the velocity induced in the cavity, representing the syrinx, is comparable to that found in the channel, representing the subarachnoid space surrounding the spinal cord, both flows being coupled through a linear elastic equation describing the membrane deformation. An asymptotic analysis for small stroke lengths leads to closed-form expressions for the leading-order oscillatory flow, and also for the stationary flow associated with the first-order corrections, the latter involving a steady distribution of transmembrane pressure. The magnitude of the induced flow is found to depend strongly on the frequency, with the result that for channel flow rates of non-sinusoidal waveform, as those found in the spinal canal, higher harmonics can dominate the sloshing motion in the cavity, in agreement with previous in vivo observations. Under some conditions, the cycle-averaged transmembrane pressure, also showing a marked dependence on the frequency, changes sign on increasing the cavity transverse dimension (i.e. orthogonal to the cord axis), underscoring the importance of cavity size in connection with the underlying hydrodynamics. The analytic results presented here can be instrumental in guiding future numerical investigations, needed to clarify the pathogenesis of syringomyelia cavities.

Optimal surrogate boundary selection and scalability studies for the shifted boundary method on octree meshes

The accurate and efficient simulation of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) in and around arbitrarily defined geometries is critical for many application domains. Immersed boundary methods (IBMs) alleviate the usually laborious and time-consuming process of creating body-fitted meshes around complex geometry models (described by CAD or other representations, e.g., STL, point clouds), especially when high levels of mesh adaptivity are required. In this work, we advance the field of IBM in the context of the recently developed Shifted Boundary Method (SBM). In the SBM, the location where boundary conditions are enforced is shifted from the actual boundary of the immersed object to a nearby surrogate boundary, and boundary conditions are corrected utilizing Taylor expansions. This approach allows choosing surrogate boundaries that conform to a Cartesian mesh without losing accuracy or stability. Our contributions in this work are as follows: (a) we show that the SBM numerical error can be greatly reduced by an optimal choice of the surrogate boundary, (b) we mathematically prove the optimal convergence of the SBM for this optimal choice of the surrogate boundary, (c) we deploy the SBM on massively parallel octree meshes, including algorithmic advances to handle incomplete octrees, and (d) we showcase the applicability of these approaches with a wide variety of simulations involving complex shapes, sharp corners, and different topologies. Specific emphasis is given to Poisson’s equation and the linear elasticity equations.

Eringen’s model via linearization of nonlocal hyperelasticity

We consider Riesz’ fractional gradient and a truncated version of it. The equations of nonlocal nonlinear elasticity based on those gradients are known. We perform a formal linearization and arrive at the equations of linear elasticity based on those nonlocal operators. We prove the existence of solutions of the linear equations, notably, by a nonlocal version of Korn’s inequality. Finally, we show that the linearizations obtained are particular cases of Eringen’s model with singular kernels.

Parameter-free preconditioning for nearly-incompressible linear elasticity

It is well known that via the augmented Lagrangian method, one can solve Stokes' system by solving the nearly incompressible linear elasticity equation. In this paper, we show that the converse holds, and approximate the inverse of the linear elasticity operator with a convex linear combination of parameter-free operators. In such a way, we construct a uniform preconditioner for linear elasticity for all values of the Lamé parameter λ∈[0,∞). Numerical results confirm that by using inf-sup stable finite-element spaces for the solution of Stokes' equations, the proposed preconditioner is robust in λ.