Numerical Analysis

Project
Dr. Maya BADR

Spring 2020
Due Date: Monday, May 25

Submission rules:

1) Any cheating attempt will lead to a grade of zero for both parties
involved.
2) You should send an Email to maya.badr@ul.edu.lb before 11:59
PM on the due date. The subject of your Email should be: [Your
Last Name] Numerical Analysis Project.
3) You should submit:
a) Two M-files, the main file named “LastName_Main.m” and the
Gauss function named “LastName_Gauss.m”.
b) A report “LastName_Report.pdf) (of maximum 5 pages,
explaining your project and showing the results/graphs…)
4) Please make sure you abide by the indicated names for the
different files, otherwise your project will be discarded.

Good Luck.
 Elastic deformation of a cantilever beam subject
to axial loading
Consider the cantilever beam of length L shown below subject to a distributed axial load
g. It is also subject to an axial traction force F0 at its free end:
F0
g
x L

It is desired to determine the horizontal displacement (deformation) within the beam as a

function of x: u(x).

The following parameters are given:

• Initial force F0 =1 kN
• Beam length L=1.5 m
• Young’s modulus E=200×109 Pa
• Distributed axial load g=106 N/m3
• Cross sectional area of the beam A=0.01 m2

Method:
The beam deformation in the horizontal direction x is governed by the following
differential equation:

d 2u
EA 2 + gA = 0 (1)
dx

To approximate (1) numerically, a regular mesh of the beam into a finite number of
partitions n (corresponding to n+1 discretization points) is used:

i=1 dx i=n+1
where dx= L/n.

Let ui be the approximations of u(xi) at x = xi for i=1, 2, …, n+1.

At the boundaries the following boundary conditions hold:

• At x=0 (at x1 ), u1 = 0 .
 du
• At x=L (at xn+1 ), EA x=L = F0 .
dx

Write a MATLAB program where the user is asked to input the value of n and that does
the following:
1) Fill the matrix [ A] and right-hand-side vector {b} .
2) Solve the resulting matrix system using the « Gauss-Elimination » direct
method (implemented in a function file and called from your main file).
3) Plot the discrete values of u function of the finite number of mesh points x.