Finite Element Method for 2D:

Plane stress problem.

Assistant Prof. Hang Thu Vu
hang@civil.uwa.edu.au

The plane stress problem
Displacement at a point

2 DOFs (degrees of freedom) per node

{ }
)
`

=
) , (
) , (
) , (
y x u
y x u
y x u
y
x
Strain at a point

Strain at a point



Relationship between displacement and strain:





x
y x u
y
y x u
y x
y
y x u
y x
x
y x u
y x
y
x
xy
y
y
x
x
c
c
+
c
c
=
c
c
=
c
c
=
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (

c
c
{ }

=
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
y x
y x
y x
y x
xy
y
x

c
c
c
Strain at a point

In matrix form for FEM formulation

Stress at a point

Stress at a point



Relationship between stress and strain
{ }

=
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
y x
y x
y x
y x
xy
y
x
t
o
o
o
( )
( )
) , (
2
1
1
) , (
) , ( ) , (
1
) , (
) , ( ) , (
1
) , (
2
2
2
y x
E
y x
y x y x
E
y x
y x y x
E
y x
xy xy
y x y
y x x

v
v
t
c vc
v
o
vc c
v
o

=
+

=
+

=
Stress at a point
In matrix form for FEM formulation
{ }
| |{ }
| || |{ } ) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
2
1
0 0
0 1
0 1
1
) , (
2
y x u L D
y x D
y x
y x
y x
E
y x
xy
y
x
=
=

(
(
(
(

=
c

c
c
v
v
v
v
o
Stress at a point
In which, the property matrix is





Where
: Youngs modulus;
: Poissons ratio
| |
(
(
(
(

=
2
1
0 0
0 1
0 1
1
2
v
v
v
v
E
D
E
v
FEM Galerkins approach

The approximated solution is obtained by
interpolating nodal approximated values by
shape functions
...
) , (
) , (
) , (
) , (
1
1
=

=
=
n
i
yi i
n
i
xi i
y
x
u y x N
u y x N
y x u
y x u
FEM Galerkins approach

In detail,

=
yn
xn
y
x
y
x
n
n
u
u
u
u
u
u
y x N
y x N
y x N
y x N
y x N
y x N
....
) , ( 0
0 ) , (
...
...
) , ( 0
0 ) , (
) , ( 0
0 ) , (
2
2
1
1
2
2
1
1
FEM Galerkins approach

is the shape function at node i. It has
value of 1 at the associated node and value
of zero at all other nodes
The shape functions interpolate the nodal
displacements in each direction
independently.
) , ( y x N
i
FEM Galerkins approach
At this stage, we have all required
components to formulate the stiffness matrix
At element level, we have

| | | | | || | | | | || | dxdy t y x B D y x B dV y x B D y x B K
e
Area
T
e e
V
T
e n n e
) , ( ) , ( ) , ( ) , (
2 2
} }
= =

| |
n n e
y x N L y x B
2 2 2 3 2 3
)] , ( [ ] [ ) , (

=
2D Elements

The finite element method uses isoparametric
elements to describe the problem domain.
In previous lectures we formulated 1D
element to solve for 1D problems.
For 2D problems, the method uses 2D
elements, which are triangular elements and
quadrilateral elements, to subdivide the
problem domain.
2D Elements

Below figure shows the domain of the plane
stress problem being discretised by triangular
elements and quadrilateral elements
subsequently.
2D Elements
Note that for symmetric problem, we do not
need to model whole domain.
We can truncate the original domain at the
symmetry axis or symmetry plane and apply
symmetric boundary conditions at the cut to
recover the compatibility between behaviour
of the part we model and the whole domain.
This technique helps to reduce the amount of
data storage and computational cost to solve
the problem.
2D Elements
The mesh which should be used for the
example is




Depending on the polynomial order of the
shape functions, we can have linear element,
quadratic element, high-order element.

2D Elements
In the next two lectures, we will develop the
formulation for triangular elements and
quadrilateral elements.
By the end of these lectures, we finish our
lecture series on the FEM within this unit
scope