Dynamic Finite Element with Diagonalized Consistent Mass Matrix and Elastic-Plastic Impact Calculation

There are some common difficulties encountered in elastic-plastic impact codes such as EPIC^[1],[2] NONSAP^[3] etc. Most of these codes use the simple linear functions usually taken from static problems to represent the displacement components. In such finite element formulation, the strain and stress components are constants in every element. In the equations of motion, the stress components in general appear in the form of their space derivatives. Thus, if we use such form functions to represent the displacement components, the effect of internal stresses to the equations of motion vanishes identically. The usual practice to overcome such difficulties is to establish as self-equilibrium system of internal forces acting on various nodal points by means of transforming equations of motion into variational form of energy relation through the application of virtual displacement principle. The nodal acceleration is then calculated from the total force acting on this node from all the neighbouring elements. The transformation of virtual displacement principle into the variational energy form is performed on the bases of continuity conditions of stress and displacement throughout the integrated space. That is to say, on the interface boundary of finite element, the assumed displacement and stress functions should be conformed. However, it is easily seen that, for linear form function of finite element calculation, the displacement continues everywhere, but not the stress components. Thus, the convergence of such kind of finite element computation is open to question. This kind of treatment has never been justified even in approximation sense. Furthermore, the calculation of nodal points needs a rule to calculate the mass matrix. There are two ways to establish mass matrix, namely lumped mass method and consistent mass method^[4]. The consistent mass matrix can be obtained naturally through finite element formulation, which is consistent to the assumed form functions. However, the resulting consistent mass matrix is not in dia-gonalized form, which is inconvenient for numerical computation. For most codes, the lumped mass matrix is used, and in this case, the element mass is distributed in certain assumed proportions to all the nodal points of this element. The lumped mass matrix is diagonalized with diagonal terms composed of the nodal mass. However, the lumped mass assumption has never been justified. All these difficulties are originated from the simple linear form functions usually used in static problems. In this paper, we introduce a new quadratic form function for elastic-plastic impact problems. This quadratic form function possesses diagonalized consistent masf matrix, and non-vanishing effect of internal stress to the equations of motion. Thus with this kind of dynamic finite element, all above-said difficulties can be eliminated.