Nonlinear FEM / Statik Vertiefung III CRE 2 - Assignment page 1

CRE 2 - Assignment
Note: The classroom exercises (CRE) are held during the lecture hours. The solution to these exercises won’t be published online
(except – in some cases – some solution hints), but basically they should be similar to the lecture and the exercises in the “Check
your knowledge”-questionnaires.
If you have questions and remarks concerning these exercises or any other topic, your comments will be gratefully acknowledged.

Assignment 1
Given is the following system with its single degree of freedom being v.

lF Element formulation: GL
v
y
b
x

For this system, derive..

a) ..the out-of-balance force r using the Green-Lagrange strain measure,
b) ..the tangential stiffness “matrix” KT.

Now the system is modified by the introduction of a spring with stiffness ks in

direction of y as can be seen in the following figure:

lF
v
y
b ks
x

For this modified system with the spring, ..

c) ..which equations in the derivations change?
d) ..give the new expression for the out-of-balance force r (denoted rspring)
and the tangential stiffness KT,spring.

Lehrstuhl für Statik Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai-Uwe Bletzinger TU München

Nonlinear FEM / Statik Vertiefung III CRE 2 - Assignment page 2

Assignment 1 (ctd.)

The system is modified once again, by introducing a second degree of freedom

(DOF), u, and a second load, lP, as can be seen in the following figure:

lF
v
y
b lP ks
x
u

For this new system, derive ..

e) ..the out-of-balance forces r (denoted r2DOF) ,
f) ..the tangential stiffness matrix KT,2DOF.

In order to check your results, the horizontal DOF u is set to u = 0 and for the
following the spring is omitted.
g) Write the vertical component of r2DOF using these assumptions and
comment on the result.
h) Write the horizontal component of r2DOF using these assumptions and
comment on the result. What’s the meaning of this expression?

Lehrstuhl für Statik Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai-Uwe Bletzinger TU München

Nonlinear FEM / Statik Vertiefung III CRE 2 - Assignment page 3

Assignment 2

a = 0.02 m
b = 1.0 m
EA2
EA1 = 1.0 N

y EA1 EA2 → 

j
x

a b

1. Formulate the out of balance force r (j) using the Green-Lagrange strain measure and the
principle of virtual work.
2. Calculate the tangential stiffness matrix K.
3. Complete the table below with the values of the out-of-balance force and draw the graph for
the out-of-balance force.
4. Mark all critical points you can find in the graph and give a reason for them.

j in [°] r (j)

45

90

120

180

Hint: The reference configuration is located at j = 0.

Lehrstuhl für Statik Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai-Uwe Bletzinger TU München