T.Sri.

Kalyan
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Brief Outlook

Introduction
Basic Process of FEM
Strong vs Weak Formulation
Variational methods
Rayleigh Ritz method

Method of Weighted Residuals

Galerkin method
Domain Discretization
Interpolation Functions
Numerical Integration
Computer Implementation
Application in Fluid flows
Summary
References
T Sri Kalyan Finite element methods

Introduction to FEM
Numerical technique for the development of

mathematical models for solving structural systems.

One of the most popular methods for solving the
PDEs.
Converts the PDEs into set of algebraic equations that
are easy to solve.
All the complexities of the problems like varying
shapes, boundaries etc. are easily maintained
Gives approximate solutions using numerical methods

T Sri Kalyan Finite element methods

FEM vs Classical Methods

Classical Methods

Finite Element Method

Exact solutions are obtained for the

governing equations

Approximate solutions are obtained

Makes drastic assumptions for

complexities in shape, boundary
conditions, loading.

Basic assumptions are made without

affecting the physics involved.

Difficult to deal with the material and

geometrical non-linearities

Can be dealt easily

T Sri Kalyan Finite element methods

Basic Process of FEM

The steps to be followed in the analysis are:
Select suitable field variables (like displacement in
solid mechanics) and element shapes
Convert the PDEs into integral form.
Divide the domain into fine elements
Select interpolation functions for respective elements.
Find the element properties
Assemble element properties to get global properties
Impose the boundary conditions
Solve the system equations to get the nodal unknowns
T Sri Kalyan Finite element methods

Strong vs Weak Formulation

Short Example
Consider a beam subjected to

uniform loading as shown in

the fig:

The governing equation and

the boundary conditions are:

px = p0

T Sri Kalyan Finite element methods

d 2u
EA 2 = p0
dx
u 0 = 0
du
EA
dx

=0
xL

Strong form
The boundary conditions along with the governing

equations forms the strong form

Strong form used directly when the governing equations
and boundary conditions are not too complex
Thus our strong form is:
d 2u
EA 2 = p0
dx
u 0 = 0
du
EA
dx

=0
xL

T Sri Kalyan Finite element methods

Weak form
A weak form or variational form is a weighted-integral statement

of a differential equation
Developed so as to ease the restrictions on boundary conditions.
d 2u
In our case it is
= p0
2
Strong form
dx
d 2u
Residual Function (R)
p0 = 0
2
dx
L
Weak form
d 2u

0 dx 2 p0 vdx = 0
v= Weight function

The solution is given by assuming N

u U N c j j ( x) 0 ( x)
j 1

T Sri Kalyan Finite element methods

Development of Weak form

Consider a more complex differential equation

d
du
[a( x) ] q( x) for 0<x<L
dx
dx
With the following boundary conditions
u(0) =

0 , a( )

Steps to be done:
Make the weighted integral form of the equation
w= weight function
T Sri Kalyan Finite element methods

 Integrate the first part of the equation

Weak form
L

L
wdv

vdw

[
wv
]
0

Basic equation used for by-parts

Q represents the secondary variable

Care should be taken in identifying the natural and

essential boundary conditions

Weaker statement of the problem with weaker continuity
of the dependent variable
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Rayleigh Ritz method

OBJECTIVE: Find an approximate solution in the form of
assumed linear combination, undetermined parameters( )
Ritz method employs weak form for solution.
Approximate solutions are found by using finite subspace
instead of infinite dimensional space
Choice of weight functions is restricted to approximation
functions, w=
Requires that the set of approximation functions { } need
to be complete
usually taken to be polynomials satisfying the essential
boundary conditions

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 Consider the variational problem resulting from the

weak form of the problem

B(w,u)=l(w)
The approximation of u(x) is now employed in above
equation and finally expressed in matrix form
N

u U N c j j ( x) 0 ( x)

(1)

j 1

(2)

or

{K}{c} = {F}
(Matrix form)
= B( , );
= l( ) - B( , 0 )
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EXAMPLE:
Determining the deflection in a simply supported beam

Governing Eq:
Let y(x) =

2
=
2

=1,3

Quadratic functional
s obtained by minimizing
Thus y=

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Weighted Residuals Method

Employs weighted-integral form for the solution

Residual function R made zero in a weighted-

residual sense

W R 0
j

R integrated over a set of linearly independent weight

functions ( )
The requirements on , 0 are more stringent
Different sets of equations produced from different

methods
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Process
Consider the operator and approximation equation

A(u) = f(x) A = Differential Operator

N

u U N c j j ( x) 0 ( x)
j 1

Residual function R= A(Un) f

Parameters determined by the following equation

Number of weight functions equal to number of

unknown parameters

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Least-Squares method
Parameters are determined by minimizing the
integral of the square of the residual

Can be represented in a matrix form {A}{c} = {F}

Where

Coefficient matrix involves same order of differentiation

as in governing equation

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Collocation Method:
Residual function made zero at N selected points thus
generating N equations
Selection of N specific points is crucial in this method
( , ) = 0 (i = 1,2,.N)
Sub-domain Method:
Domain is divided into large number of subdomains.
= 1 in
= 0 else

W R R
j

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Galerkin Method
Weight function taken to be equal to approximation

function ( = )
Results in development of symmetric matrices
When it is referred as PetrovGalerkinmethod

Rx 0
i

(i = 1,2,N)

In solid mechanics it is the virtual work method

Approximation functions are of higher order than those in

Ritz method
Ritz and Galerkin are same only in two cases:
When all the boundary conditions are essential
Same approximation functions are used
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 Example:

Consider the equation with given boundary conditions

Approximation functions are given by

0 = x; 1 = x(2-x); 2 = 2 (1-2x/3)
The final residual function is

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 Least Square Method:

Taking =

we get 2 equations for s

Galerkin Method:

Take = we get

Different solutions are obtained from different methods

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Domain Discretization
Domain () of the problem divided into set of

subintervals called finite elements

Collection of these forms the finite element mesh
Discretization is often dictated by geometry, loading
and material properties
Approximate solution on these elements need to be
continuous at the interfaces
Element type, density and number of elements
controls the accuracy of the solution to large extent
Mess refinement to be done to check the convergence
of the solution
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 Element Shapes:
Depending on the problem there can be one, two,

three dimensional elements

One dimension: Line elements
Two dimension: Triangle, Quadrilateral

Three dimension: Tetrahedron

Higher order of elements are also used by increasing

the number of nodes

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Interpolation Functions
FEM seeks approximate solution over each element as

opposed to variational methods

Solution found at element nodes called interpolation
points or element nodes
The approximate solution over an element is given by

where,
Uje = Value of solution at nodes

= Interpolation functions
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 Lagrange Interpolation: These interpolate only

function values but not the derivatives

Hermite Interpolation: Interpolate both the function
values and the derivatives
Accuracy of solution can be increased with higher
order of approximation

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Element Equations
Linear Elements:
Function assumes a value at nodes and nullifies at

other points

ie ( x je ) 0

if ij

ie ( x je ) 1

if i=j

and,

i ( x) 1
i 1

In general the approximate functions are:

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 Triangular Element:
Most commonly used element in 2 dimensions

The approximation function is given by

The unknowns cis are obtained by matrix U = {A}{C}
Where,
=

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 Rectangular Elements:
Because of four nodes a bilinear term is added in the

approximation solution
Interpolation function becomes

Quadratic Elements:
Each side of the element should have three nodes
In this case the solution assumes the form,

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Numerical Integration
Evaluation of the complicated integral forms or where

the integrand is discontinuous

Can be easily implemented in a computer in form of a
program.
BASIC IDEA: To find a function that is a good
approximation of integrand and easily integrable.
F(x) is approximated by P4(x)
Thus,

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Newton-Cotes Quadrature
Employs values of function at equally spaced points

where,
= Weighting coefficients;
= Base points; r = Number of base points
It is to be ensured that 1 = 1

For r =2 it equals the Trapezoidal rule

For r=3 it is Simpsons rule

Odd points results in higher order of accuracy

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Computer Implementation
Finite element program consists of three basic units:
Preprocessor: This involves reading geometry, material
data and boundary conditions of the problem
Processor: Here all the calculations like generation of
mesh, element matrices etc are done
Postprocessor: Computing the solution at desired points
of the domain
The major steps in processor are:
Generation of element matrices
Assembly of element equations
Imposition of boundary conditions
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Formulations for fluid flows:

Basic governing equations are derived from
Law of conservation of mass (Continuity equation)
Law of conservation of momentum (Equations of
motion)
Law of conservation of energy
Two different viewpoints are used in the analytical

description of the equations of a continuous medium

Eulerian Description (Fixed spatial location)
Lagrangian Description (Fixed set of material particles)

The physical properties that are of main interest are

viscosity, compressibility and rotationality.

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 Continuity equation for two dimensional flow is given by

The conservation of momentum for 2-D flows leads to

the famous Navier-Stokes equations.

The equations are simplified by the introduction of either
stream function or velocity potential

FEM used in finding the stream function or velocity

potential of a given problem.

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Summary
FEM Allows accurate representation of complex

geometry and dissimilar material properties

Ritz, Galerkin and least square methods melts down to
matrix form for determining the parameters
Difficulty faced in constructing the approximation

functions
Triangular element is elementary shape for two
dimensional problems
Numerical Integration necessary for computer
implementation

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References:
J.N Reddy: Introduction to Finite Element method,

TMH, 3rd edition, 2005.

S.S Bhavikatti: Finite Element Analysis, 2nd edition, 2010
B. Finlayson: Method of Weighted Residuals and
Variational Principles, 1972.

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