The General Approach ! for the Finite Element Analysis ! of Boundary Value Problems!

NOTES:
Displacements="fundamental variables"u! gradients= x,y,z derivatives of "fundamental variables"e! Fluxes = (material properties)x (gradients)... !! !=De! (Some integral functional I whose minimum is the solution to the set of pde) !
nodes!

Given: Some set of partial differential equations ! involving "displacements", "gradients", and "uxes",! + Boundary Conditions on the "displacements" or "uxes"! If that set is "Self-Adjoint" then there exists a related "Variational Form" ! Subdivide the domain into "elements", each dened by some number of "nodes" ! There is a useful local coordinate system for each element type. ! Introduce an expansion for the "displacements" of the form: !
mx 1

"2# "1 !

element

!
Transformation!

Global Coord !

Local Coord !

u =! N U

mxn nx 1

The number of basis functions = the number of nodes, ! They are constructed to have the 0-1 property ! An isoparametric element uses the basis functions for the coordinate transformation above !

where U are the unknown values of the displacements at each node, N are the "basis functions" which are functions of spatial coordinates x,y,z, (but are almost always written in terms of the local coordinates) ! Take the derivatives of this expansion to get the expansions for the gradients needed in the functional I : ! Gradients: e=BU ! Fluxes: !=D BU !

The B matrix terms are x, y derivatives of the N matrix. Since the basis functions are usually in terms of the local coordinates, chain rules are needed !

Kah 11/99 !

Put those into the functional and integrate for each element to get the functional in terms of the unknown U ! The matrix in the quadratic form denes the stiffness matrix K, and the linear terms dene the force matrix F ! The functional for the entire domain equals the sum over the elements; therefore, the functional has the same 1/2 UTKU-FTU form, but using the Global stiffness and force matrices, which are obtained by merging. !

For complicated elements, numerical integration (Gaussian) is needed !

Every linear problem will have a quadratic and a linear form, as: !
1/ 2

UTKU-FTU !

The minimum of this quadratic form is obtained by the nodal displacements satisfying the equations F=KU ! The BC on displacements must be inserted, and the rest of the unknown displacements are then found by inverting the resultant reduced stiffness matrix. ! The nodal forces ("reactions") at nodes with given displacements can be found by putting the solution for the nodal displacements back into the global equations. !
Kah 11/99 !

For any given displacements that are to be zero, one can just strike out the corresponding rows and columns of the set of equations. !