Spectral Element Formulation Research Articles

Performance of 2D-spectral finite element method in dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams

This article presents a two-dimensional spectral finite element formulation for dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams. Finite element method (FEM) is the one of the most extensively used analysis tools for solving problems of dynamic analysis of structures. However, it needs extensive computational resources and time for large structures, leading to the development of alternate computationally efficient modeling techniques over the past few decades. Some of these techniques are broadly termed as “Spectral Finite Element Methods” (SFEMs). Frequency domain-based SFEM (FDSFEM) and time domain-based SFEM (TDSFEM) are the most commonly used SFEMs found in the literature. This article provides a brief review of these methods identifying their key advantages and disadvantages; and explores the feasibility of applying such methods in the dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams. Here, the TDSFEM has been used to perform the dynamic time history analysis of a concrete gravity dam due to its relative advantages over FDSFEM, which is challenging for irregular geometry and finite domain. Sensitivity analysis and convergence studies have been performed using 4-noded and 9-noded elements. The foundation of the dam has been modeled using two-dimensional infinite elements in both FEM and TDSFEM analysis, which is a novel application in the case of TDSFEM. This article quantifies the computational efficiency of TDSFEM over the conventional FEM by comparing the computation time in both methods and thus emphasizes the applicability of TDSFEM in dynamic analysis, especially in case of complex geometries and large two-dimensional structures (like concrete gravity dam). The results demonstrate the computational efficiency of TDSFEM over FEM when higher order elements are considered. Modal analysis and time history analysis results point that the use of higher order elements of TDSFEM can be a viable alternative to the use of the conventional FEM leading to significant saving in computational time with reasonable accuracy for dynamic analysis of large structures like concrete gravity dams.

Enhanced vibration control using non-reciprocal piezoelectric beam having sensing and actuating bimorph: Spectral element formulation

A unique strategy of low-frequency wideband vibration control by harnessing the concept of feedback control between the piezoelectric bimorph sub-cells which are acting as sensors and actuators is conceptualized in this paper. In the unit cell, voltages from the sensing bimorph are fed back to actuate another bimorph through operational amplifier-based gain circuits. The prime novelty of the paper is the non-trivial formulation of the spectral element of the non-reciprocal piezoelectric beam (NRPB), having electro-mechanically coupled sensing and actuating bimorph in the unit cell, derived from the exact solution of the governing differential equations. The analytical formulation employing the spectral element method enables the elementary assembling of the NRPB units to simulate different boundary conditions and various configurations arising due to the alteration of the position of the sensing and actuating bimorph. The direct frequency responses for various configurations are obtained for a cantilevered and a simply-supported beam with varying feedback gain. The feedback gain induced damping to the system, hence sharp peaks and drops are flattened. Most promisingly, the amplitude of the displacement response for the entire frequency range can be brought down below its corresponding static deformation with the application of positive gain for certain configurations. Hence, the proposed system could potentially be used for application in the field of vibration and acoustics.

Geofluid Object Workbench (GeoFLOW) for Atmospheric Dynamics in the Approach to Exascale: Spectral Element Formulation and CPU Performance

Abstract A new software framework using a well-established high-order spectral element discretization is presented for solving the compressible Navier–Stokes equations for purposes of research in atmospheric dynamics in bounded and unbounded limited-area domains, with a view toward capturing spatiotemporal intermittency that may be particularly challenging to attain using low-order schemes. A review of the discretization is provided, emphasizing properties such as the matrix product formalism and other design considerations that will facilitate its effective use on emerging exascale platforms, and a new geometry-independent, element boundary exchange method is described to maintain continuity. A variety of test problems are presented that demonstrate accuracy of the implementation primarily in wave-dominated or transitional flow regimes; conservation properties are also demonstrated. A strong scaling CPU study in a three-dimensional domain without using threading shows an average parallel efficiency of ≳99% up to 2 × 104 MPI tasks that is not affected negatively by expansion polynomial order. On-node performance is also examined and reveals that, while the primary numerical operations achieve their theoretical arithmetic intensity, the application performance is largely limited by available memory bandwidth. Significance Statement This work considers the need for computationally efficient, high-order, low dissipation numerics to fully leverage emerging exascale computing resources in an effort to examine and improve the accuracy of numerical treatments of atmospheric and weather phenomena. A new spectral element implementation is introduced that attempts to address the issues involved. Well-understood tests are presented that illustrate the known efficacy of the method in wave-dominated, quasi-laminar, and relatively strong shear flow regimes, and good conservation properties for mass and total energy are achieved. Importantly, the implementation is shown to exhibit encouraging performance characteristics.

Signal Wrap-Around Free Spectral Element Formulation For Multiply Connected Finite 1-D Waveguides

This paper presents a novel spectral element formulation based on Numerical Laplace Transforms for the wave propagation of multiply connected finite 1-D waveguides, based on the first order shear deformation theory. The present formulation overcomes the severe short-comings of Fourier transform based spectral element formulation which has serious problems associated with the signal wrap-around while analysing finite domain structures. The real part of the Laplace variable which provides damping to the wavenumber solution, is characterized by Wilcox and Wedepohl approaches. The effect of this damping alters the wave dispersion and introduces certain interesting phenomenon that is not seen in the undamped waveguides. Problems involving wave propagation analysis are solved on finite multiply connected waveguides of varied complexity to demonstrate the efficiency of the formulated element. In most of the examples, the presence of signal wrap-around in Fourier domain based spectral element is brought out. With this approach, any large structural network, consisting of 2-D either metallic or composite finite length waveguides, under high frequency impact loading can be analyzed with very low computational cost.

Frequency dependent effective modulus of square grid lattice using spectral element method

A spectral element method-based formulation is developed to obtain the frequency-dependent effective Young’s and shear modulus of a two-dimensional square grid lattice. The methodology presented in this work is a simplified approach to obtain effective parameters. The lattice is assumed to be constituted of Euler–Bernoulli beam elements which are arranged in a specific order to obtain the said geometry. Spectral element formulation of the beam element considering axial and flexural deformation is presented, which in due course is employed to obtain the global spectral element matrix of the unit cell. A detailed procedure to obtain the frequency-dependent stiffness matrix of the unit cell is presented on which proper boundary conditions are applied using specific transformation matrices for each case. The frequency-dependent properties are also calculated using the software package COMSOL Multiphysics to validate the results. Frequency responses of the unit cell are obtained using the proposed methodology as well as the software package, and the results are compared. It is observed that the proposed methodology predicts the peaks at nearly the same frequency range as obtained through the finite element solution obtained in COMSOL Multiphysics. Finally, the results are presented which show the frequency-dependent effective parameters for the unit cell. The methodology presented here opens up a new way to calculate the effective properties of two-dimensional lattice structures and with some modifications can also be extended to three-dimensional lattice structures.

A multi-GPU and CUDA-aware MPI-based spectral element formulation for ultrasonic wave propagation in solid media

In this paper, we introduce a new multi-GPU-based spectral element (SE) formulation for simulating ultrasonic wave propagation in solids. To maximize communication efficiency, we purposely developed, based on CUDA-aware MPI, two novel message exchange strategies which allow the common nodal forces of different subdomains to be shared between different GPUs in a direct manner, as opposed to via CPU hosts, during central difference-based time integration steps. The new multi-GPU and CUDA-aware MPI-based formulation is benchmarked against a multi-CPU core and classical MPI-based counterpart, demonstrating a remarkable acceleration in each and every stage of the computation of ultrasonic wave propagation, namely matrix assembly, time integration and message exchange. More importantly, both the computational efficiency and the degree-of-freedom limit of the new formulation are actually scalable with the number of GPUs used, potentially allowing larger structures to be computed and higher computational speeds to be realized. Finally, the new formulation was used to simulate the interaction between Lamb waves and randomly shaped thickness loss defects on plates, showing its potential to become an efficient, accurate and robust technique for addressing the propagation of ultrasonic waves in realistic engineering structures.

Spectral analysis of acoustic plane waves in ductworks with uniform and varying cross-section waveguides

The problem of low-frequency sound propagation in ducts involving varying cross-sections is analyzed. Spectral finite element formulations for the dynamic analysis of varying cross-section ducts are presented as tapered spectral elements. These elements can be used in connected waveguides through dynamic stiffness relations. Linear and polynomial duct types are considered. The elements’ shape functions are established as well as the dynamic stiffness matrices describing the spectral relation between the acoustic pressure and the volume velocity. The presented spectral approach describes the acoustic wave motion at any position along arbitrary multiply connected duct waveguides within the one-dimensional plane-wave assumption. The derived expressions are verified experimentally, and by comparison with 3-D finite element solutions. The modeling of varying cross-section duct waveguides can play an important role in the design of acoustic excitation devices and horn-type loudspeakers. The advantage of the presented formulations lies in the low computational cost when compared to the finite element approach.

An efficient computational framework for hailstone impacts on composite plates utilizing a semi-empirical viscoplastic contact law

The dynamic response of composite structures under impact loading conditions is a complex problem which is attracting substantial attention. Specifically, the case of hailstone impact introduces additional challenges that are urging to be encountered. Hence, the main goal of this paper is to present the development and validation of a computationally efficient impact model that encompasses a novel semi-empirical viscoplastic contact law for crushable ice impactors together with a new time domain spectral shear plate finite element formulation including nonlinear effects due to large displacements and rotations. The new viscoplastic contact law, which provides the coupling between the hailstone impactor and the targeted composite plate, is derived from analytical expressions and observations based on experiments and high-fidelity finite element simulations which utilize a fully integrated ice failure material model. High-velocity spherical hailstone impact experiments on woven glass/epoxy composite plate target structures are conducted using a high pressure pre-charged gas gun Obtained results are validated against high fidelity finite element models and experimental measurements. The results demonstrate the adequacy of the proposed contact law to capture the impact loading, as well as the accuracy, computational efficiency and additional benefits of the presented computational framework compared to other well-established numerical tools.

Spectral element formulation for rock-socketed mono-pile under horizontal dynamic loads

The current study entails a thorough investigation of the dynamic response of a mono-pile foundation in homogeneous soil and varied layered soil–rock conditions under horizontal dynamic loads. A sequence of visco-elastic springs linked along its length represents the mono-pile immersed in elastic half space. The frequency dependent stiffness and damping of a mono-pile foundation embedded in layered elastic half space are developed using spectral element formulation. The variations in stiffness and damping with frequency for various soil–rock systems are demonstrated. The dynamic response characteristics of the pile were found to be influenced by the depth of the rock-socketed pile. The presence of the underlying layer of stiffer layer of rock enhances the overall stiffness of the system. The frequency versus amplitude responses of a mono-pile supported heavy mass block for both horizontal translation and rocking motion are calculated using the stiffness and damping of the mono-pile under various soil rock conditions. The horizontal amplitude of the pile decreases with increasing pile rock socketing depth. The resonant amplitudes for rocking motion increases as the pile’s rock socketing depth increases. Finally, the changes in natural frequency and peak amplitudes with varied pile slenderness ratios are investigated for diverse pile–soil–rock conditions.

Flexural wave propagation in periodic Micropolar-Cosserat panels: Spectral Element Formulation

In this research, a perspective of the dispersion relation of flexural waves on periodic structures is proposed. The rotational theory of micro-elements is stem to explore the favorable impact of size effect on structures through the localization of the strain energy. The panels are modelled as a one-dimensional (1-D) Micropolar–Cosserat (MC) continuum to explore the effect of length-scale or micro-rotational waves of solids. The spectral element formulation of a panel and the transfer matrix of the unit cell is presented within the framework of the state-space method. The propagation constant in the eigenvalue domain is established based on the Bloch–Floquet theorem to account for the periodicity of the panel. The MC theory in analyzing the band-gap (stop-band) and pass-band characteristics of the unit cell panels is validated by a commercial finite element software package-COMSOL Multiphysics. The mode shape of unit cell for the start and end point of band-gap is further analyzed within the realms of finite element method (FEM) analysis. The appropriate limiting condition reverts MC spectral element into Timoshenko (TM) beam model. The comparison of Timoshenko beam model with the spectral element of 1-D plane-stress (PS) analysis is also investigated. It is observed that the shear wave of the MC model is coupled with a micro-rotational wave of micro-elements, unlike the classical continuum framework. The response of the finite structure subjected to various frequencies is presented too. Presence of vibration attenuation in the specified band-gap (BG) is justified through the elemental dynamic stiffness (DS) matrix of unit cells. This reduced the level of vibration at the specific frequency range within the attenuation band or disintegrates it into two bands. The attenuation bandwidth and its location is significantly affected by the modulation of both geometry and material properties of the beam. Investigation of flexural wave propagation based on the proposed 1-D MC beam theory shows good agreement with the two-dimensional (2-D) plane-stress FEM analysis.

A new spectral finite element for the study of face sheet–core disbond identification in a sandwich panel

A new two-node spectral finite element for a sandwich panel with 13DOF/node is formulated to study the face sheet–core disbond in a sandwich panel. The spectral element formulation results in an exact dynamic stiffness matrix for the element. The study on wave propagation characteristics for both healthy and disbonded sandwich panel is carried out. The numerical results obtained using this spectral element are validated by comparing with the results obtained through simulations using commercially available finite element software. The effect of core damping for waves propagating in both through-thickness and along the length of the panel is clearly demonstrated. The interaction of the waves propagating between the face sheet–core disbond is studied and using numerical examples it is shown that the amplitude change is a measure to identify the disbond whereas the arrival times can be used to estimate the size of the disbond.

Spectral-element formulation of multi-transmitting formula and its accuracy and stability in 1D and 2D seismic wave modeling

Application of local artificial boundary conditions in high-efficient spectral element method (SEM) is a problem that needs further study, where difficulties focus on how to design an appropriate numerical scheme of artificial boundaries that is in good accordance with the unequally-spaced grid nodes and high-order property of the element. Liao's local artificial boundary, i.e. multi-transmitting formula (MTF), provides a convenient way of implementing arbitrary-order displacement-type boundaries because it is defined directly in discrete form and can be transformed into numerical schemes by using merely some interpolation approaches. A new set of numerical schemes of MTF is developed and its accuracy and stability are thoroughly discussed in the application of spectral-element simulation of 1D and 2D seismic wave propagation. The new MTF scheme cannot be written into a binomial form like the traditional one does. This fact has a significant influence on numerical properties of high-order boundary, but merely slightly affects the performance of lower-order boundaries which are daily used in practical simulations. Numerical examples compared with viscous-spring or perfectly matched layer (PML) boundary exhibits that stable and quite good accuracy can be achieved by using the proposed method.

Simplified spectral stochastic finite element formulations for uncertainty quantification of engineering structures

In general, the structure inputs including loading and physical specifications can be deterministic or stochastic and uncertainties can be modeled using a random variable, random field, or a stochastic process. A well-known method developed to analyze structures with uncertainties is the spectral stochastic finite element method (SSFEM). To improve the efficiency of SSFEM, this paper has developed three simplified formulations to separately solve problems involving stochastic loading and constant material properties, stochastic loading and random material properties and stochastic loading and stochastic material properties the main feature of which is that they need fewer finite element (FE) analyses to assess the statistical specifications of the response. To examine their accuracy and efficiency, three practical engineering problems: 1) Euler-Bernoulli beam, 2) square solid and 3) modeling the corrosion effect in a concrete structure were solved and the results were compared with those of the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). To see if the proposed formulations can be used in structural reliability analyses, a limit state function (LSF) was defined for each problem and the results were compared with those of the corresponding MCS; their significant efficiency and enough potential was, thus, confirmed.

The Double Absorbing Boundary Method Incorporated in a High-Order Spectral Element Formulation

In this paper, we consider the numerical solution of the time-dependent wave equation in a semi-infinite waveguide. We employ the Double Absorbing Boundary (DAB) method, by introducing two parallel artificial boundaries on the side where waves are outgoing. In contrast to the original implementation of the DAB, where the numerical solution involved either a low-order finite difference scheme or a low-order finite element scheme, here we incorporate the DAB into a high-order spectral element formulation, which provides us with very accurate solutions of wave problems in unbounded domains. This is demonstrated by numerical experiments. While the method is highly accurate, it suffers from long-time instability. We show how to postpone the onset of the instability by a prudent choice of the computational parameters.

Vibration Analysis of Fluid Conveying Carbon Nanotubes Based on Nonlocal Timoshenko Beam Theory by Spectral Element Method.

In this work, we applied the spectral element method (SEM) to analyze the dynamic characteristics of fluid conveying single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). First, the dynamic equations for fluid conveying SWCNTs were deduced based on the nonlocal Timoshenko beam theory. Then, the spectral element formulation was established for a free/forced vibration analysis of fluid conveying SWCNTs by introducing discrete Fourier transform. Furthermore, the proposed method was validated using several comparison examples. Finally, the natural frequencies and dynamic responses of a simply-supported fluid conveying SWCNTs were calculated by the SEM, considering different internal fluid velocities and small-scale parameters (SSPs). The effects of fluid velocity and SSPs on the dynamic characteristics of SWCNTs conveying fluid were revealed by the numerical results. Compared with other methods, the SEM shows high accuracy and efficiency.

An improved time-splitting method for simulating natural convection heat transfer in a square cavity by Legendre spectral element approximation

A Legendre spectral element formulation of an improved time-splitting method is developed for the natural convection heat transfer problem in a square cavity. The convection term, Stokes term and temperature diffusion term are considered separately. The standard Galerkin variation is applied for the convection and temperature diffusion term, and the least-squares variation is adopted to the Stokes term due to the inf-sup constraint. Therefore, assumptions about the intermediate velocity and pressure in the original time-splitting method is eliminated, and the final velocity is divergence free. The numerical test verifies the validation and the h−p convergence characteristics of this method. Besides, the natural convection heat transfer in a square cavity with the Rayleigh number ranging in 103–106 is simulated, and the numerical solutions reach an satisfactory agreement with existing both numerical and experimental results. Furthermore, the natural convection in a square cavity with four heat sources is investigated, depicting a further application of this method.

A higher‐order equilibrium finite element method

SummaryIn this paper, a mixed spectral element formulation is presented for planar, linear elasticity. The degrees of freedom for the stress are integrated traction components, ie, surface force components. As a result, the tractions between elements are continuous. The formulation is based on minimization of the complementary energy subject to the constraints that the stress field should satisfy equilibrium of forces and moments. The Lagrange multiplier, which enforces equilibrium of forces, is the displacement field and the Lagrange multiplier, which enforces equilibrium of moments, is the rotation. The formulation satisfies equilibrium of forces pointwise if the body forces are piecewise polynomial. Equilibrium of moments is weakly satisfied. Results of the method are given on orthogonal and curvilinear domains, and an example with a point singularity is given.

Control of wave propagation response using quasi crystals: A formulation based on spectral finite element

ABSTRACTThis paper presents wave propagation studies in quasi crystal structures and quasi crystal reinforced aluminium structures. The analysis is performed using frequency domain spectral finite element formulation. The analysis considers different 2-D decagonal and 3-D icosahedral quasi crystals. First, wave propagation analysis of quasi crystal structure alone is performed and the propagation of phonon and phason modes for different quasi crystals are studied. The study includes the propagation of axial and transverse wave responses in these quasi crystals. The study has found that the amplitude of the phason modes is very small compared to the phonon modes and the increase of the phason mode content (through increase in R) increases the phason mode amplitude, without affecting the phonon mode amplitudes. It is shown that the dominant axial phonon mode is non-dispersive and the dominant flexural phonon mode is dispersive. In the next study, the aluminium beam structure is reinforced with different quasi crystals in different configurations and the wave propagation of axial and transverse responses are studied. For all the combinations of quasi crystal aluminium beam combination, there is substantial suppression of responses both for the axial and the bending responses. Unsymmetrical configuration produces substantial non-dominant phonon modes which propagate dispersively. It is found that for a symmetric bi-morph configuration, the response is reduced significantly, about 68% and 75% for axial loading and 80% and 78% for flexural loading, respectively, for the 2-D decagonal quasi crystal and the 3-D icosahedral quasi crystal.

Thermal two-phase flow with a phase-field method

Phase field methods have become of great interest for the simulation of droplet and bubble dynamics, moving free interfaces and more recently phase change phenomena. One example is the Navier–Stokes–Korteweg (NSK) equations. With a particular focus on the van der Waals fluid, we present the numerical solution of the NSK system with the energy equation included. The least-squares spectral element formulation with a time-stepping procedure, a high-order continuity approximation and an element-by-element technique is implemented to provide a general and robust solver for the thermal NSK equations. A convergence analysis is conducted to verify our solver. Two numerical examples regarding phase transitions of a droplet and thermocapillary convection are provided to validate our solver.

Spectral BEM for the Analysis of Wave Propagation and Fracture Mechanics

This paper presents a spectral boundary element formulation for analysis of structures subjected to dynamic loading. Two types of spectral elements based on Lobatto polynomials and Legendre polynomials are used. Two-dimensional analyses of elastic wave propagation in solids with and without cracks are carried out in the Laplace frequency domain with both conventional BEM and the spectral BEM. By imposing the requirement of the same level of accuracy, it was found that the use of spectral elements, compared with conventional quadratic elements, reduced the total number of nodes required for modeling high-frequency wave propagation. Benchmark examples included a simple one-dimensional bar for which analytical solution is available and a more complex crack problem where stress intensity factors were evaluated. Special crack tip elements are developed for the first time for the spectral elements to accurately model the crack tip fields. Although more integration points were used for the integrals associated with spectral elements than the conventional quadratic elements, shorter computation times were achieved through the application of the spectral BEM. This indicates that the spectral BEM is a more efficient method for the numerical modeling of structural health monitoring (SHM) processes, in which high-frequency waves are commonly used to detect damage, such as cracks, in structures.