DERIVING FINITE ELEMENT EQUATIONS USING

WEIGHTED RESIDUAL METHOD - LEAST SQUARES

APPROACH
Presented by
A. Sabiha Khathun
M.TECH (Machine Design)
16481D1501
Subject: Finite Element Method

GUDLAVALLERU ENGINEERING COLLEGE

Sheshadri Rao Knowledge Village, Gudlavalleru,PIN:521356
Introduction
 The finite element method (FEM) is a numerical method for
solving problems of engineering and mathematical physics.
 STARTED: for solving linear problems in solid mechanics
 CURRENT: for solving non linear problem, dynamic, transient
problems
 Domain is descreitized into finite element method

 Application of residual and variational method

 Differential equation converted into algebraic equation using

integral approximations.
Approaches To Solve A Engineering Problem
 General process
a) Assume a trail solution
 Discretizie the domain in to different elements

 Approximate the field variable over the domain (interpolation

functions)
b) Satisfy the boundary conditions
c) Satisfy the differential equation with trail solution(error is residual)
d) Minimize the residual over the whole domain to obtain equations.
Engineering Problems & Governing Differential
Equations:
 Integral formulation: The equation derived using an energy

principle, such as the principle of minimum potential energy, or a

weighted residual method, such as Galerkin Method, are usually of
a weak form.

 Three different approaches are being used when formulating an

FEM problem. They are:

1. Direct Approach

2. Variational Approach

3. Weighted Residual Method

 Weighted Residual Methods
 Weighted residual method is a generic class of method developed

to obtain approximate solution to the differential equations of the

form
L (φ) + f = 0
where φ(x) is the dependent variable and is unknown and f(x) is a
known function.
i.e., L (ψ) + f ≠ 0 or
L (ψ) + f = R
where R(x) is a measure of error commonly referred to as the
residual.
 UNIFORM ROD, UNIFORM AXIAL LOAD

Governing differential equation is

 Continued…
 With regards to the selection of weight function, we have

several choices. Hence, depending upon nature of weight

function, we have different types of weighted residual methods.
Some of the standard methods are:

1. Point Collocation Method

2. Subdomain Collocation Method

3. Least Square Method

4. Galerkin Method
 Objective:
 Deriving finite element equation using weighted residual method-

least square method.

a) Problem formulation

b) Solution to given differential equation subject to the boundary

conditions.
 Method of least squares
 In this method, the integral of the weighted square of the
residual over the domain is required to be a minimum;
i.e.,

 The necessary conditions for minimizing the integral can be

expressed as

c1and c2 are unknown constants & f1(x) and f2(x) are trail
functions
 Consider the beam deflection problem. The governing

differential equation is

y(0) = 0,y(L) = 0.

 The trigonometric trial function is given by

where

and the residual is

and its derivative

The weighted residual equation can now be written as

On integrating above equation, it gives

Solving for A, we have

and thus, the approximate solution is

Example 1.
Finding solution for the following differential equation

Subject to the boundary conditions

using the least squares method.

Approach
 Assume an approximate solution satisfying the boundary

conditions which two unknown constants.

 Use the conditions to minimize the integral of the square of

the residue to evaluate the constants.

 Differential equation is
 The approximate solution satisfying the boundary conditions is

taken as

Where c1and c2 are unknown constants .

 using this solution the residue can be expressed as
R2 = c12(-2+x-x2)2+c22(2-6c2+x2-x3)2+x2
On simplifying, we get

R 2 = C12(4-4x+x2-2x3+x4)+c22(4-24x+40x2-16x3+13x4-
2x5+x6)+2c1c2(-4+14x-16x2+9x3-2x4-x5)-2c1x+c1x2-
c1x3+2c2-6c2x2+c2x3-c2x4)

On integrating with respect to x with limits o to 1, we get

dx = 0.033c12+3.74c22-2(0.65)c1c2-0.91c1+0.05c2

The weighting function w is usually taken as unity in this method.

The application of least squares method leads to following
equations:

-0.65c 1+3.74c 2+0.05=0

0.066c 1-1.3c 2-0.9166=0

On solving the two equations we get c1=-5.62and c2=-0.188

The approximate solution of the equation is

Φ(x)= -5.62x(1-x)-0.188x2(1-x)
 CONCLUSION
 More widely used than collocation and Subdomain,

 linear systems are easily assembled.

 linear systems are relatively well conditioned.

 least-square functional provide an easily computable residual

error indicator .
 the treatment of general boundary conditions, including no
homogeneous ones, is greatly facilitated because boundary
condition residuals can be incorporated into the least-square
functional.