Module 8: SIMPLE RECTANGULAR ELEMENT

Simplest Rectangular Element Note that the simplest rectangular element has 4 nodes (at the vertices) with 1 dof per node. This element is shown is Fig. 24.1. The figure also shows the local node numbering system, the nodal coordinates and the nodal degrees of freedom (dof) of local node i . The local node numbering system usually starts from bottom left corner and is counterclockwise. The notation for the coordinates and dof has the superscript k indicating that these quantities belong to the element k . This is called as local notation.

Figure 24.1 Four Noded Rectangular Element k Since there are totally 4 dof per element, we need 4 linearly independent basis functions. We choose the lowest three monomial functions ( 1 , x, y ) and a second degree monomial function which is symmetric inx and y (i.e., xy ). Then the finite element approximation for k -th element becomes : (24.1) and are unknown coefficients. Note that, it is a bi-linear polynomial in x and y . From this in terms of by using the

approximation, one can determine the shape function

properly at . However, for the purpose of numerical integration, the shape functions need to be transformed to the natural coordinates. Therefore, we first transform the approximation to the natural coordinates and then determine the shape functions in terms of the natural coordinates.

Natural Coordinates To facilitate numerical integration, we transform each (rectangular) element to a master (square) element for which the expression for numerical integration is available. The master element is a square of size two. This element is shown in Fig. 24.2. The coordinates are called as natural coordinates.

Figure 24.2 Mapping of a Rectangular Element onto the Master Element Since the straight boundaries of a rectangular element parallel to (x, y) axes get mapped onto the straight boundaries of the master element parallel to expressed by the following relations : axes, the mapping can be

(24.2) Note that, x is independent of and y is independent of . To determine the unknown

coefficients , we use the conditions that the nodes 1 and 2 of the rectangular element map onto the vertices (-1, -1) and (1, -1) respectively. Then, we get

(24.3) By solving these equations, we obtain the following expressions for : (24.4)

Similarly, the unknown coefficients b i are determined form the conditions that the nodes 1 and 4 of the rectangular element map onto the vertices (-1, -1) and (-1, 1) respectively. Then, we get the following expressions for : (24.5) After substituting the mapping function expression (eq. 24.2), the finite element approximation (eq. 24.1) becomes : (24.6) where

(24.7)

Note that, this expression is also a bi-linear polynomial in

and

Shape Functions in Natural Coordinates To determine the shape functions, we evaluate T at the 4 nodes and use the following conditions

(24.8) Substituting these conditions in the approximation (24.6), we get the following equations:

(24.9) Solving these equations, we obtain the following expressions for in terms of :

(24.10) Substituting the above expressions for terms, we get in the approximation (24.6) and rearranging the (24.11) where the shape functions are given by :

(24.12) Note that the shape factions satisfy the following property : (24.13) These are called as bi-linear Lagrangian shape functions and the corresponding rectangular element is called as the first order Lagrangian rectangular element . Note that, the shape functions can also be expressed as :

(24.14) where

(24.15) Here, and are the 1-D linear Lagrangian shape functions (eqs. 11.14-11.15)

along the edges parallel to -axis. Similarly and are the 1-D linear Lagrangian shape functions along the edges parallel to -axis. Thus, the bi-linear Lagrangian shape functions (of the first order Lagrangian rectangular element) can be constructed as tensor products of the 1-D 1 st order (i.e., linear) Lagrangian shape functions along the edges parallel to and axes.

Lecture 25 : Higher Order Regtangular Elements

Introduction In the last lecture, we developed the simplest rectangular element. This element has 4 nodes and the corresponding shape functions are bi-linear. Since the degree of freedom per node is one, this element is called as the Lagrangian rectangular element, or to be precise, first order Lagrangian rectangular element. The corresponding shape functions are called as Lagrangian shape functions and the approximation is called as Lagrangian approximation. Thus, equations (24.12) represent the first order or bi-linear Lagrangian shape functions and equation (24.11) represents the first order or bi-linear Lagrangian approximation. In this lecture, we shall develop the higher order Lagrangian rectangular elements using the approximations of order higher than bi-linear. Higher Order Lagrangian Rectangular Elements Note that the approximating function for the simplest rectangular element (eq. 24.1) is not a complete polynomial, and hence does not satisfy the property of spatial invariance or geometric isotropy. Thus, its form does not become independent of the orientation of the coordinate system. However, when we use rectangular elements, the domain is rectangular and, therefore, the orientation of the coordinate system is almost fixed (Fig. 25.1a). The only other possible orientation is to interchange x and y axes (Fig. 25.1b).

Figure 25.1 Choice of (x, y) Axes for Rectangular Element

Therefore, the form of the approximating function for rectangular elements need not satisfy the property ofspatial invariance exactly but need to satisfy only the following restricted version : The form of the approximating function should be symmetric in x and y coordinates. (If the approximating function is expressed in terms of the natural coordinates then it should be symmetric in and coordinates). To satisfy the restricted version of the spatial isotropy, the approximating function must contain :

the terms on the axis of the symmetry of the Pascal Triangle (Fig. 23.1) and/or, equal number of symmetrically placed terms form each side of the Pascal Triangle (Fig. 23.1).

As in the case of higher order triangular elements (Lecture 23), here also we construct the shape functions directly in terms of the natural coordinates. Therefore, we start with the approximating function expressed in terms of the natural coordinates of . To satisfy the restricted version of spatial isotropy, we choose the approximating function to be a product of 1-D polynomial in and 1-D polynomial in , both being of the same degree. Thus, p th order Lagrangian approximation is constructed by using the product of p -th degree 1-D polynomial in and p -th degree 1-D polynomial in . Note that the approximating function (eq. 24.6) of the simplest rectangular can be expressed as the product of 1 st degree 1-D polynomial in and 1 st degree 1-D polynomial in . Therefore, it is consistent to call it as the 1 st order ( p =1) Lagrangian approximation. Note that p -th order Lagrangian approximation contains all the terms which fall within p -th parallelogram of the Pascal Triangle in shown in Fig. 25.2.

Figure 25.2 Pascal Triangle in Natural Coordinates As in the case of higher order Lagrangian triangular elements (Lecture 23), here also, the number of nodes per element ( N ) must be equal to the number of coefficients in the approximating function. Therefore (25.1) As stated in Lecture 23, for the weighted residual integral to be finite, the approximating function must be such that the primary variable is continuous across the inter-element boundaries. For rectangular elements, the boundaries of the master element are and . Since, the approximating function is a product of p -th degree 1-D polynomial in and p -th degree 1-D polynomial in , the variation of the primary variable along any boundary becomes a p -th degree 1-D polynomial in the boundary coordinate. To make the primary variable continuous across the inter element boundaries, its variation along the common boundary segment must be the same as that of the adjoining element. For this to happen, the number of nodes (which is equal to the degrees of freedom) on the common boundary segment must be equal to ( p +1). Since the rectangular element has four boundary segments, the number of boundary nodes becomes (25.2) Since 4 nodes are common to 4 pairs of boundaries, they must be subtracted from 4( p +1) to get the number of boundary nodes Nb . The remaining nodes must be in the interior of the

element. Thus, the number of internal nodes

is given by : (25.3)

For p = 1, i.e., for the first order or bi-linear approximation in (25.1)- (25.3), the number of various nodes is i.e., for the second order or bi-quadratic approximation in nodes is and

and

, as per equations

. Similarly, for p = 2, , the number of various

. Thus, there is one internal node. Similarly, for p = 3, i.e.,

for the third order or bi-cubic approximation in and , the number of various nodes is N = 16 , Nb = 12, Ni = 4 . Thus, there are 4 internal nodes.

Shape Functions As stated earlier, we shall construct the shape functions directly in terms of the natural coordinates .Note that, for p = 1, i.e., for the first order or bi-linear Lagrangian approximation (eq. 24.6), the shape factions turn out to be the products of first degree 1-D polynomial in and first degree 1-D polynomial in (eqs. 24.14-24.15). Similar thing

happens for . Therefore, we follow a simpler procedure (somewhat) similar to the procedure adopted in Lecture 23 for obtaining the higher order Lagrangian shape functions for triangular elements. In this procedure :

First, we express each shape function

as a product of p -th degree 1-D polynomial

in and p-th degree 1-D polynomial in . Then, we use the property of Lagrangian shape functions : (25.4)

to determine the coefficients in the expressions of . For rectangular elements, another simple procedure of finding the shape functions exist. Note that, for p = 1, i.e., for the first order Lagrangian rectangular element, the shape functions turn out to be the tensor products of the 1-D linear Lagrangian shape functions in and .

Similar thing happens for . For p-th order Lagrangian rectangular element, the shape functions turn out to be tensor products of the 1-D p -th order Lagrangian shape functions in

and

. Thus, we can adopt the following procedure : as the product of 1-D p-th order Lagrangian

First, we express each shape function shape functions in and . Thus,

(25.5)

For chosen values of and , the shape function index i is found from the property (25.4) of Lagrangian shape functions.

The second order Lagrangian rectangular (master) element is shown in Fig. 25.3. As stated earlier, there are N = 9 nodes per element out of which N b = 8 are the boundary nodes and Ni = 1 is the internal node. Out of the 8 boundary nodes, 4 are placed at the vertices and the remaining 4 nodes are placed on the four boundaries with 1 node per boundary. To achieve proper variation of the primary variable, these nodes should not be close to the vertices. Instead, they should be closer to the boundary mid-points. In Fig. 25.3, they are placed at the boundary midpoints. The internal node is placed close to the centre of the element. In Fig. 25.3, it has been placed at the centre.

Figure 25.3 Second Order Lagrangian Rectangular (Master) Element The shape functions of this element are :

(25.6) where , , (25.7) are the 1-D quadratic Lagrangian shape functions given by equations (11.30-11.32). The third order Lagrangian rectangular (master) element is shown in Fig. 25.4. As stated earlier, there areN = 16 nodes per element out of which N b = 12 are the boundary nodes Ni = 4 and are the internal nodes. Out of the 12 boundary nodes, 4 are placed at the vertices and

the remaining 8 nodes are placed on the 4 boundaries, with 2 nodes per boundary. To achieve a proper variation of the primary variable, these 2 nodes should not be close to the vertices or to one another. In Fig. 25.4, they are placed such that they trisect the corresponding boundary. Similarly, 4 internal nodes should not be two close to the center or the boundaries. In Fig. 25.4, they are chosen in such a way that their coordinates are .

Figure 25.4 Third Order Lagrangian Rectangular (Master) Element The shape functions of this element are :

(25.8) where

(25.9) are the 1-D cubic Lagrangian shape functions.

Serendipity Rectangular Elements Note that, for p-th order Lagrangian rectangular element, the number of nodes per element (N), the number of boundary nodes (Nb) and the number of internal nodes (Ni) are given by equations (25.1)-(25.3). Table 25.1 shows how N , Nb , Ni increase with p .

Table 25.1 Variation of Number of Nodes with Order of Approximation p 1 2 3 4 N 4 9 16 25 Nb 4 8 12 16 Ni 0 1 4 9

Table 25.1 shows that as p increases both N b and N i increase. Note that, an increase in Ni improves the order of approximation only over that particular element. However, an increase in Nb improves the order of approximation simultaneously over the neighboring element also. For Lagrangian rectangular elements, Nibecomes greater than Nb for . Therefore, higher order Lagrangian rectangular element is not a good choice. It is desirable to have elements where the number of internal nodes ( N i ) is very small compared to the number of boundary ( Ni ), or if possible, zero. A family of rectangular elements with no internal nodes was discovered by an accident. Therefore, they are called as serendipity rectangular elements.

Note that the simplest rectangular element of Lecture 24 has no internal nodes. Therefore, it is the first order serendipity rectangular element as well. To obtain the second order serendipity element from the second order Lagrangian element (Fig 25.3), we remove the internal node (i.e., the local node no. 9). This element is shown in Fig. 25.5.

Figure 25.5 Second Order Serendipity Rectangular (Master) Element The approximation for second order Lagrangian rectangular element having 9 nodes contains 9 terms which fall within the 2 nd parallelogram of the Pascal Triangle (Fig. 25.2). To obtain the approximation for second order serendipity element (Fig. 25.5) which has only 8 nodes, we need to remove one term form these 9 terms. This term must be symmetric in We remove the term . Thus, the approximation becomes : (25.10) To obtain the shape functions, we express each as as : (25.11) Note that the degree of freedom per node, for serendipity elements, is also one. Therefore, the shape functions satisfy the property : (25.12) and .

This property is used to determine the unknown coefficients the shape functions are determined. The shape functions are given by :

. This way, all

(25.13)

Note that these shape functions cannot be expressed as tensor products of 1-D second order (or quadratic) Lagrangian shape functions in and .

The third order serendipity element is obtained from the third order Lagrangian rectangular element (Fig. 25.4) by removing the 4 internal nodes (i.e., the local node numbers 13, 14, 15 and 16). This element is shown in Fig. 25.5.

Figure 25.6 Third Order Serendipity Rectangular (Master) Element The approximation for third order Lagrangian rectangular element having 16 nodes contains 16 terms that fall within the 3rd parallelogram of the Pascal Triangle (Fig. 25.2). To obtain the approximation for third order serendipity element (Fig. 25.5) which has only 12 nodes, we need to remove 4 terms from these 16 terms. The combination of these terms must be symmetric in the and . We remove the following terms : contains the following terms : as and . Thus,

approximation

. To obtain the shape functions, we express each

(25.14)

The unknown coefficients are determined from the shape function property (eq. 25.12). The shape functions are given by :

(25.15)