FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

(MEng 5171)

CHAPTER SIX

TWO DIMENSIONAL SOLIDS

By: Andebet T.
1
 PL NE-STRESS FORMUL TION
• The application of external forces creates internal forces
and, subsequently, stresses within the material.

The state of stress at a point can be defined in terms of the

nine components on the positive faces and their counterparts
on the negative surfaces, as shown in the figure
However, because of equilibrium requirements, only six independent
stress components are needed to characterize the general state of stress at
a point.
Thus the general state of stress at a point is defined by:

where sxx, s yy, and szz are the normal stresses and txy, t yz,
and t xz are the shear stress components, and they provide a
measure of the intensity of the internal forces acting over
areas of the cube
• In many practical problems, we come across
situations where there are no forces acting in the Z-
direction and, consequently, no internal forces
acting on the Z- faces. This situation is commonly
referred to as a plane stress situation, as shown in
Figure below.

FIGURE :Plane state of stress.

• For a plane stress situation, the state of stress
reduces to three components:

the applied force will also cause a body to undergo

deformation, or change in its shape. We can use a
displacement vector to measure the changes that
occur in the position of a point within a body.

To better measure the size and shape changes that

occur locally within the material, we define normal
and shear strains.
• The state of strain at a point is, therefore,
characterized by six independent components and
these components provide information about the
size and shape changes that occur locally in a given
material due to loading.

The situation in which no displacements occur in the z-

direction is known as a plane strain situation.
• plane stress conditions are usually applied to
structures that have a relatively small thickness as
compared to its other dimensions. Due to the
absence of any off-plane external force, the normal
stresses are negligible, which leads to a plane stress
situation.

Fig. typical 2D plane stress problem.

• In cases where plane strain conditions are applied, as in Figure below,
the thickness of the structure (in the z direction) is relatively large as
compared to its other dimensions, and the loading (pressure) is
uniform along the elongated direction. The deformation is, therefore,
approximated to be the same throughout its thickness. In this case,
the off-plane strain (strain components in the z direction) is
negligible, which leads to a plane strain situation.

Figure typical 2D plane strain problem

• Over the elastic region of a material, there also
exists a relationship between the state of stresses
and strains, according to the generalized Hooke's
Law.

where E is the modulus of elasticity (Young's

modulus), u is Poisson's ratio, and G is the shear
modulus of elasticity (modulus of rigidity).
• For a plane stress situation, the generalized Hooke's
Law reduces to

Or in matrix form
• For a plane strain situation, the generalized Hooke's
Law becomes:
 Plane Stress nalysis by FEM
Forces on a differential element subjected to plane stress
Summation of Forces on Differential
Element

fx and fy are body forces in x and y directions, respectively.

PDE of Plane Stress
 Constitutive Relation

Stress Vector

Strain Vector

Material Property Matrix

 For Plane strain situation, the material property matrix
becomes

and the kinematic matrix is

 Fem Formulation
pplying the Galerkin’s method

Integrating by parts the first term

Writing in form of matrix

Writing the stress vector in terms of material property matrix
and strain vector

Using kinematic relationships to express the strain vector the

first term

Using FEM interpolation to express the displacement inside

an element
Expressing the interpolation in form of a matrix

Expressing the kinematic matrix in terms of interpolation function

derivatives matrix and displacement vector
 Hence the weak integral form can be expressed as

The element stiffness matrix is given by

The force vector due to the body force

For triangular element B is given as

Formulation using Triangular Element
Linearly interpolating inside a triangular planer

Expressing in form of a matrix

Expressing nodal values as function of nodal coordinates

 Triangular Element
Solving the coefficients of the equations

The area of the triangle is given by

Comparing the interpolation with the FEM interpolation the shape unction are
determined as follows
The matrix [B] is determined by substituting for the derivatives of the shape
function
 Fem Formulation
s [B] is constant, it can be taken out of the integral sign and the stiffness
matrix is obtained as follows

Load Matrix
To obtain the load matrix for a two-dimensional plane stress element, we
must first compute the work done by the external forces, such as
distributed loads or point loads. The work done by a concentrated load Q
is the product of the load component and the corresponding displacement
component
We can represent the work done by concentrated loads in a compact
matrix form as
• A distributed load with px and py components does work
according to the relationship

Using triangular elements to represent the displacements, we

find that the work done by distributed loads becomes

In the case of the concentrated load the differentiation of the work done
with respect to nodal displacements components of the loads are:
• The differentiation of the work done by the distributed load with
respect to the nodal displacements gives the load matrix

Consider an element subjected to a distributed

load along its ki-edge, as shown in Figure

Figure: distributed load acting over the ki-

edge of a triangular element.
Evaluating the force along the ki-edge and realizing that along the ki-
edge, Sj = 0, we have:

In a similar fashion, we can formulate the load matrix for a distributed

load acting along other sides of the triangular element. Evaluation of the
integral along the ij-edge and the jk-edge results in:
 EX MPLE
• A two-dimensional triangular plane stress element made of steel, with
modulus of elasticity E = 200 GPa and Poisson s ratio v = 0.32, is
shown in Figure below. The element is 3 mm thick, and the
coordinates of nodes i,j, and k are given in centimeters in . Determine
the stiffness and load matrices under the given conditions.
 nsys Exercise
• The bicycle wrench shown in Figure below is made of steel with a modulus of
elasticity E = 200 GPa and a Poisson s ratio v = 0.32. The wrench is 3 mm thick.
Determine the von Mises stresses under the given distributed load and boundary
conditions.
In your analysis follow the
following steps.
(1) create the geometry
of the problem,
(2) choose the appropriate
element type. (3) apply
boundary conditions. and
( 4) obtain nodal results:
• Finite element for plate and shells (Refer
additional material)