MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

UNIVERSITY OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

HO CHI MINH CITY

MASTER OF SCIENCE THESIS

PHUNG VAN PHUC

DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDGE-BASED SMOOTHED FINITE

ELEMENT METHOD FOR SIMULATING THE
FLUID-SOLID INTERACTION PROBLEMS

MAJOR: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 605202

Supervisor: NGUYEN THOI TRUNG, PhD

Ho Chi Minh City, 10-2011

 Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Thoi

Trung, for his dedicated support, guidance and continuous encouragement during
my MSc study. To me, Dr. Trung is also kind mentor who inspires me not only in
my research work but also in many aspects of my life.

To my family: Parents, younger sisters, I greatly appreciate their eternal love

and strong support. Special, thanks are conveyed to my Mother, who sacrificed all
her life to bring up and support her children. I am really indebted to her a lot.
Without her endless encouragement, understanding and full support, it is impossible
to finish this thesis. I also express my deepest gratitude to my Father who has
always supported my spirit, especially in the most difficult moments.

Highly appreciation is extended to Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hung who introduced me

to FOSAT Group where I saw Dr. Nguyen Thoi Trung who became my supervisor.

I would also like to give many thanks to my friends in class UTE and closed
friends who have made my life a joyful one and a new family.

Lastly, I appreciate all teacher teached me during two years master of science at
University of technical education HCMC.

i
 Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. i

Table of contents ..................................................................................................................................... ii

Nomenclature ........................................................................................................................................... iv
List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................... viii
List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................... xi

Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Objectives of the thesis .................................................................................................... 4
1.3 Organization of the thesis .............................................................................................. 4

Chapter 2 The fundamental theories ....................................................................................... 6

2.1 Governing equations for fluid - solid interaction problems ............................ 6
2.2 A coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM method for the fluid-solid interaction
problems ................................................................................................................................ 8
2.2.1 Brief on the FEM for fluid domain [3] ................................................... 8
2.2.2 Brief on the FEM for fluid domain [3] ................................................... 9
2.2.3 FEM for the coupled fluid - solid system [3] ..................................... 11

2.2.4 ES-FEM-T3 for the fluid domain ............................................................ 13

2.2.5 nES-FEM-T3 for the solid domain [27] ............................................... 16

2.2.6 A coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM method for the fluid-solid

interaction problems .................................................................................. 19
2.3 Dynamic analysis ............................................................................................................. 19
2.3.1 Lump mass matrix in the nES-FEM ...................................................... 20
2.3.2 Shape functions of the nES-FEM ........................................................... 21

ii
 Table of contents

Chapter 3 Numerical method ..................................................................................................... 24

3.1 2D deformable solid backed by a closed box filled with water .................. 24
3.1.1 Free vibration analysis ................................................................................. 25
3.1.2 Forced vibration analysis ........................................................................... 29
3.2 2D deformable water dam ........................................................................................... 33

Chapter 4 Conclusions and recommendations .................................................................. 38

4.1 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 38

4.2 Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 38

References ............................................................................................................................................... 40
Publications arising from thesis ................................................................................................. 46

iii
 Nomenclature

Nomenclature

Ap area surrounding the node

Af area of the cell f

k k

As area of the cell s

k k

T
b s bsx bsy the body force

smoothed pressure gradient matrix on the cell f

k
B fI

smoothed pressure gradient matrix on the cell s

k
B sI

c the speed of sound

cf test values at nodes for fluid domain

cs test values at nodes for solid domain

ds approximate displacement values at nodes

Ds matrix of material constant of the solid domain
ff force caused by the fluid domain at the interface between the fluid

and solid domains

fb force in the solid domain
fq force in the fluid domain

fs force caused by the solid domain at the interface between the fluid
and solid domains
Ip identity matrix

H 01 Sobolev space with vanishing values on dirichlet boundary for

pressure in fluid domain
H1 Sobolev space for pressure in fluid domain
iv
 Nomenclature

H10 Sobolev space with vanishing values on dirichlet boundary for

displacement in solid domain
H1 Sobolev space for displacement in solid domain
H coupling matrix
Kf stiffness matrix for the fluid domain

Ks stiffness matrix for the solid domain

Kf smoothed stiffness matrix for fluid domain

Ks smoothed stiffness matrix for solid domain

K fIJ
k
smoothed stiffness element matrix for fluid domain

K sIJ
k
smoothed stiffness element matrix for solid domain
M total number of the boundary segments
Mf mass matrix for fluid domain

Mp lump mass matrix

Ms mass matrix for solid domain

n normal vector on sf boundary

nf outward normal vector on boundary of fluid domain

ns outward normal vector on boundary of solid domain

nf outward normal vector on the boundary f

k k

ns outward normal vector on the boundary s

k k

N nod
f total number of nodes of elements of f

Nsnod total number of nodes of elements of s

N ed
f the total number of edges for fluid domain

N ed the total number of edges for solid domain

Nf the finite element shape functions at nodes for fluid domain

v
 Nomenclature

Ns the finite element shape functions at nodes for solid domain

p pressure at node
p pressure value
p the approximate pressure values at nodes
qf the added fluid mass per unit volume

t thickness of the element

ts traction force value of solid domain
uf displacement vetor for fluid domain

us displacement vetor for solid domain

us displacement value vetor for solid domain
vf weight function for fluid domain

vs weight function for solid domain

w pressure gradient value
xGP
i midpoint (Gaussian point) of the boundary segment
the mass density of the element
0 the density of water
s the density of the material for solid domain
s the strain of solid domain
s stress vector of solid domain
angular frequency
f fluid domain

s solid domain

f
k
smoothing domain for fluid domain

s
k
smoothing domain for solid domain
sf boundary between the fluid domain and the solid domain

vi
 Nomenclature

p (Dirichlet) pressure boundary of fluid domain

z (Neumann) normal pressure gradient boundary of fluid domain

u (Dirichlet) displacement boundary of solid domain
t (Neumann) force boundary of solid domain
problem boundary

f
k
smoothed problem boundary for fluid domain

s
k
smoothed problem boundary for solid domain
p pressure gradient

p
k
smoothed pressure gradient
s 2D differential operator for solid domain

su s smoothed displacement gradient

f
k
smoothing function for fluid domain

s
k
smoothing function for solid domain

vii
 List of figures

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1. A model of the fluid solid interaction problems.

Figure 2.2. Triangular elements and the smoothing domains associated with
edges in ES-FEM-T3.

Figure 2.3. Domain discretization and the smoothing domains (shaded areas)
associated with edges of n-sided polygonal elements in the nES-
FEM.

Figure 2.4. Area Ap of field node p in a mesh of n-sided polygonal elements.

Figure 2.5. Gauss points of the smoothing domains associated with edges for
n-sided polygonal elements in the nES-FEM.

Figure 3.1. Model of the 2D deformable solid backed by a closed box filled
with water.

Figure 3.2. A discretization using n-sided polygonal elements for solid

domain and triangular elements for fluid domain for the 2D
deformable solid backed by a closed box filled with water.

Figure 3.3. Convergence of the first coupled eigenmode by 3 different

coupled methods: FEM-T3/FEM-T3, FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 and ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.4. Comparison of eight coupled eigenmodes of the fluid-solid system

by 3 different coupled methods: FEM-T3/FEM-T3, FEM-
Q4/FEM-Q4 and ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

viii
 List of figures

Figure 3.5. A discretization using n-sided polygonal elements for solid

domain and very distorted triangular elements for fluid domain.

Figure 3.6. Comparison of eight coupled eigenmodes of the fluid-solid system

by situation distorted mesh and uniform mesh of ES-FEM-
T3/nES-FEM method.

Figure 3.7. Shape of eight coupled eigenmodes of the fluid-solid system by

ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.8. Forced frequency response at the point A(2.0,5.0) in the solid
domain with the force applied also to the point A(2.0,5.0) by the
ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.9. Forced frequency response at the point A(2.0,5.0) in the solid
domain with the force applied also to the point B(2.0,3.0) in the
fluid domain by the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.10. Compare the forced frequency response at the point A(2.0,5.0) in
the solid domain with the force applied also to the point
A(2.0,5.0) by the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM and by the nES-FEM for
solid domain without coupling with the fluid domain.

Figure 3.11. Compare the forced frequency response at the point A(2.0, 5.0) in
the solid domain with the force applied also to the the point A(2.0,
5.0) between the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM and FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4.

Figure 3.12. Compare the transient response at the point A(2.0, 5.0) in the solid
domain with the force applied also to the the point A(2.0, 5.0)
between the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM and FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4

Figure 3.13. Model of 2D deformable water dam.

ix
 List of figures

Figure 3.14. A discreatization using n-sided polygonal elements for te dam and
triangular elements for the fluid domain.

Figure 3.15. Convergence of the first coupled eigenmode by 3 different

coupled methods: FEM-T3/FEM-T3, FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 and ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.16. Forced frequency response at the point C(10.0, 5.0) in the solid
domain with the force applied also to the the point C(10.0, 5.0) by
the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.17. Forced frequency response at the point C(10.0, 5.0) in the solid
domain with the force applied to the the point D(8.0, 1.0) by the
ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.18. Shape of eight coupled eigenmodes of the fluid-solid system by

the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

x
 List of tables

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1. Shape function values at different sites on the smoothing domain
boundary associated with the edge 1-6 in Figure 2.5

Table 3.1. Value of eight first coupled and uncoupled eigenmodes

xi
Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction
The need of computing the dynamic behavior of two-dimensional (2D) fluid-solid
system arises in many important engineering problems. The dam-reservoir interaction
during earthquakes and fluid storage containers subjected to dynamic loads are
examples of this class of problems. However, predicting the response of fluid-solid
coupled systems is generally a difficult task. In most practical problems, it is not
possible to obtain closed form analytical solutions for the coupled systems. As a result,
much effort has been performed in order to develop the different numerical methods
for these coupled systems.
Numerical analysis of fluid-solid interaction problems involves the modeling of
fluid domain, solid domain, and the interaction between these two domains. The finite
element method (FEM), the boundary element method (BEM) and the meshfree
methods are currently the most preferred tools for the simulation of the fluidsolid
interaction problems [1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 34, 35, 36, 44, 45, 46, 47]. The numerical
solution of the fluidsolid interaction problems can be performed using only FEM or a
coupled BEM/FEM with a displacementdisplacement formulation [4, 46, 47] or a
pressure-displacement formulation [2, 8, 9, 10], or a combination of these [1, 45].
In numerical computation using the conventional FEM for 2D solid mechanics
problems, the use of triangular and quadrilateral elements are well-established.
However, there is significant bottleneck in generating quality meshes using three- and
four-sided elements for complex geometries. The use of elements with a large number
of sides will provide greater flexibility and better accuracy to solve problems that arise
in solid mechanics and biomechanics. Since material microstructure in polycrystalline
alloys and piezoelectrics, and bone can be described through polygonal sub-domains,
the use of polygonal finite elements (nFEM) in such applications is a natural choice.

1
Chapter 1 Introduction

However so far, although there have been many researches [7, 21, 22, 23, 38, 39, 40,
41, 43] about the nFEM using polygonal elements, these nFEM still possesses some
among four following main disadvantages: 1) the construction of shape functions is
complicated; 2) the numerical integration on the polygonal elements is difficult; 3) they
overestimate excessively the stiffness of the problem which leads to poor accuracy in
solutions; 4) they are subjected to locking in the problems with bending domination
and incompressible materials.
In the 2D fluid-solid interaction problems, the geometrical domain of fluid is
usually simpler than that of the solid domain. Hence, the 3-node linear triangular
element (FEM-T3) are preferred by many engineers due to its simplicity, robustness,
and efficiency of adaptive mesh refinements. However, the FEM-T3 element possesses
overly stiff property which causes the following certain drawbacks: 1) they
overestimate excessively the stiffness of the problem which leads to poor accuracy in
solutions; 2) they are subjected to locking in the problems with bending domination
and incompressible materials.
In order to overcome these disadvantages of both triangular element and n-sided
polygonal element, Liu and Nguyen-Thoi et al. [13] incorporated the gradient
smoothing technique of meshfree methods [5] into the FEM to formulate a series of the
smoothed FEM models (S-FEM) named as cell-based S-FEM (CS-FEM) [12, 14, 15,
19, 24, 33], node-based S-FEM (NS-FEM) [18, 30], edge-based S-FEM (ES-FEM)
[16], and alpha-FEM [17] that use linear interpolations.
For polygonal elements, there are three smoothed FEM models (nS-FEM) including
n-sided polygonal cell-based smoothed FEM (nCS-FEM) [6], n-sided polygonal node-
based smoothed FEM (nNS-FEM) [18, 26], and n-sided polygonal edge-based
smoothed FEM (nES-FEM) [27].
In these S-FEM models, the finite element mesh is used similarly as in the FEM
models. However, these S-FEM models evaluate the weak form based on smoothing
domains created from the entities of the element mesh such as cells/elements, or nodes,
or edges. These smoothing domains can be located inside the elements (CS-FEM and
2
Chapter 1 Introduction

nCS-FEM) or cover parts of adjacent elements (NS-FEM, nNS-FEM, ES-FEM and

nES-FEM). These smoothing domains are linear independent and hence ensure
stability and convergence of the S-FEM models. They cover parts of adjacent elements,
and therefore the number of supporting nodes in smoothing domains is larger than that
in elements. This leads to the bandwidth of stiffness matrix in the S-FEM models to
increase and the computational cost is hence higher than those of the FEM. However,
also due to the contribution of more supporting nodes in the smoothing domains, the S-
FEM models often produce the solution that is a much more accurate solution than that
of the FEM. Therefore in general, when the efficiency of computation (computation
time for the same accuracy) in terms of the error estimator versus computational cost is
considered, the S-FEM models are more efficient than the counterpart FEM models
[16, 26, 27]. It is clear that these S-FEM models have the features of both models:
meshfree [11] and FEM. The element mesh is still used but the smoothed gradients
bring the information beyond the concept of only one element in the FEM: they bring
in the information from the neighboring elements.
Among the S-FEM models using triangular elements, the ES-FEM-T3 [16] shows
some following excellent properties for the 2D solid mechanics analyses: 1) the
numerical results are often found super-convergent and much more accurate than those
of FEM using quadrilateral elements with the same sets of nodes; 2) there are no
spurious non-zeros energy modes found and hence the method is also stable and works
well for dynamic analysis; 3) the implementation of the method is straightforward and
no penalty parameter is used, and the computational efficiency is better than FEM
using the same sets of nodes. The ES-FEM-T3 has been developed for visco-
elastoplastic analyses [28], 2D piezoelectric [31], plate [32] and primal-dual
shakedown analyses [42]. The idea of the ES-FEM is also quite straightforward to
extend for the 3D problems using tetrahedral elements to give a so-called the face-
based smoothed finite element method (FS-FEM) [25, 29].
Among these nS-FEM models using n-sided polygonal elements, the nES-FEM
[27] shows some following excellent properties for the 2D solid mechanics analyses: 1)
3
Chapter 1 Introduction

the numerical results are often found super-convergent and much more accurate than
those of nFEM using polygonal elements with the same sets of nodes; 2) there are no
spurious non-zeros energy modes found and hence the method is also stable and works
well for dynamic analysis; 3) the implementation of the method is straightforward and
no penalty parameter is used, and the computational efficiency is better than nFEM
using the same sets of nodes.

1.2 Objectives of the thesis

This thesis hence attempts to further develop the ES-FEM-T3 and nES-FEM for
dynamic analysis of 2D fluid-solid interaction problems based on the pressure-
displacement formulation. In the present coupled method, the fluid domain is
discretized by triangular elements and the ES-FEM-T3 is used, while the solid domain
is discretized by n-sided polygonal elements and the nES-FEM is used. In both the
fluid and solid domains, the gradient smoothing technique based on the smoothing
domains associated with the edges of the elements is used to smooth the gradient of
pressure and gradient of displacement, respectively. This gradient smoothing technique
can provide proper softening effect, which will effectively relieve the overly stiff
behavior of the standard FEM model and thus improve significantly the solution of
coupled system. Some numerical examples will be presented to illustrate the
effectiveness of the proposed coupled method compared with some existing methods
for 2D fluid-solid interaction problems.

1.3 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of four Chapters and is organized as follows:

In Chapter 1, general introduction about fluid structure interaction, some drawbacks

of the standard FEM and some advantages of two chosen S-FEM models (ES-FEM-T3

and nES-FEM) are briefly presented. The objective of the thesis are clearly described.

4
Chapter 1 Introduction

In Chapter 2, some of the essential mathematical formulations of fluid structure

interaction using the standard finite element method (FEM), ES-FEM-T3 and nES-

FEM are briefly presented including the governing equations (or strong form), weak

formulation, domain discretization, formulation of linear system of equations, and the

construction of the shape functions of nES-FEM .

In Chapter 3, some examples of fluid structure interaction using S-FEM (ES-

FEM/nES-FEM) about static response, frequency response and transient response are

presented. The numerical results of the proposed coupled method are compared with

those of standard FEM solutions (FEM T3/ FEM Q4/FEM Q8).

Lastly, Chapter 4 presents the conclusive remarks including original contributions,

some insight comments, crucial contributions, and some recommendations for the

future works.

5
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

Chapter 2
THE FUNDAMENTAL THEORIES

2.1 Governing equations for fluid - solid interaction problems

The fluid - solid interaction problem is schematically sketched in Figure 2.1. It
consists of a fluid domain, f , and a solid domain, s . The boundary between the

fluid domain and the solid domain is denoted, sf ; two remaining fluid boundaries

are given by prescribed pressure, p= p on p , and a prescribed normal pressure

gradient n f p=w on z ; the remaining solid boundaries are given by prescribed

displacement, us = u on u , and prescribed force vector, nss = ts on t .

Figure 2.1. A model of the fluid - solid interaction problems.

For the fluid - solid system, the solid is described by the differential equation of
motion for a continuum body assuming small deformations and the fluid is described
by the wave equation in which the fluid is inviscid, irrotational and only undergoes
small translations.
Coupling conditions at the boundary between the solid and fluid domains ensure the
continuity in displacement and pressure between the domains. Hence, the governing
equations and boundary conditions were described in general as [3]:

6
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

2 p 2 q
2 c0 p c0 in f
2 2

t t
p= p on p
Fluid: (2.1)
n p w on z
f
+ and the initial conditions

T 2u s

s s b in s

s s
t 2

Solid: us = u on u (2.2)
n = t on t
s s s
and the initial conditions

u s |n u f |n
on sf (2.3a)
Coupling:
s |n p
on sf (2.3b)
where for the fluid, p(t ) is dynamic pressure; q f (t ) is the added fluid mass per unit

volume; c0 is the speed of sound; x y and 2 2 x2 2 y 2 ;

T

n f n fx n fy is the boundary normal vector pointing outward from the fluid domain;
T T
and for the solid, s x y xy is the stress; u s usx usy is the displacement;

b s bsx bsy is the body force; s is the density of the material; n s is the boundary
T

normal matrix pointing outward from the solid domain written as

nsx 0 nsy
ns
nsx
(2.4)
0 nsy

and s is 2D differential operator written as

0
x

s 0 (2.5)
y


y x

In the solid, the displacement u s and strains s are related by the kinematic relation

7
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

s sus (2.6)
and the stresses s and strains s are related by the Hooks law
s Ds s (2.7)
where Ds 3 3 is a symmetric positive definite (SPD) matrix of material constants.

2.2 A coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM method for the fluid-solid interaction

problems
2.2.1 Brief on the FEM for fluid domain [3]
The weak form of the differential equation is derived by multiplying the first term
in Eq. (2.1) with a weight function, v f H 01 , and integrating over the fluid domain, f ,

2 p q f
f 2t c0 p c0 t d 0
2 2 2
v (2.8)
f

The weak form can be written

2 p q f
d c02 v f v
T
vf p d c02 v f n f p d c02 d (2.9)
2t t
f
f f f f

Due to f sf p z , Eq. (2.9) is rewritten

2 p
d c02 v f
T
vf p d c02 v f n f p d c02 v f n f p d
f
t2
f sf p
(2.10)
q f
c vn p d c v d
2 2

t
0 f f 0 f
z f

Using the relation n f p w on the boundary z in Eq. (2.1), and v f 0 on p

(due to v f H 01 ), we get

2 p q f
d c02 v f p d c02 v f n f p d c02 v f w d c02 v f
T
vf d (2.11)
f
t2
f sf z f
t

Supposing the fluid domain f is discretized into N nod

f nodes and N elf triangular

elements, then the pressure field p H 1 and test weight function v f H 01 can be

approximated by
8
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

p N f p ; vf N f c f (2.12)
T
where p p1 p2 pN nod contains the approximate pressure values at nodes;
f
T
c f c f 1 c f 2 c fN nod contains the chosen test values at nodes; and
f

N f N f 1 N f 2 N fN nod contains the finite element shape functions at nodes for

f
the fluid domain.
First, by choosing c f 1 0 0 , we get v f N f 1 . Similarly, by choosing N nod
T
f

linear independent vectors cf such that

v vf 2 v fN nod N f 1 Nf2 N fN nod N f , we obtain the finite element

f 1 f f
formulation for the fluid domain from Eq. (2.11) as
q f

f
NTf N f d p c02
f
(N f )T N f d p c02
sf
NTf n f pd c02
z
NTf w d c02
f
NTf
t
d (2.13)

and the governing system of equations for the fluid domain can be written
M f p + K f p = fq + f s (2.14)
where

N N f d ; K f c02 (N )T N f d
T
Mf = f f
f f

q f (2.15)
f s c02
sf
NTf n f pd ; f q c02
z
NTf wd + c02
f
NTf
t
d

in which f s represents the force caused by the solid domain at the interface between
the fluid and solid domains, and f q represents the force in the fluid domain.

2.2.2 Brief on the FEM for solid domain [3]

The weak form of the differential equation is derived by multiplying the first term
in Eq. (2.2) with a weight function, v s H10 , and integrating over the solid domain, s ,

9
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

T 2u s
s s s s s t 2 d 0
b
T
v (2.16)
s

Using Green-Gauss theorem, the first term in Eq. (2.16) becomes

v d vTs nss d ( v ) s d
T T T
s s s s s (2.17)
s s s

Due to s sf u t , Eq. (2.17) is rewritten

v d vTs nss d vTs nss d v n d ( v ) s d

T T T T
s s s s s s s s (2.18)
s sf u t s

Using the relation nss = ts on the boundary t , and v s 0 on u (due to v s H10 ),

Eq. (2.18) becomes

v d vTs nss d v t d ( s v s )T s d
T T T
s s s s s (2.19)
s sf t s

Substituting Eq. (2.19) into Eq. (2.16), the weak form of the solid domain becomes
2u s
v nss d v t d ( s v s ) s d v s b s d v s s 2 d 0
T T T T T
(2.20)
t
s s s
sf t s s s

or
2u s

s
v sT s
t 2
d ( s v s )T s d vTs ns s d vTs ts d v sT b s d
s sf t s
(2.21)

Substituting Eq. (2.6) and (2.7) into the second term in Eq. (2.21), the weak form
of the solid domain becomes
2u s

s
vTs s
t 2
d ( s v s )T Ds s u s d vTs nss d vTs ts d v sT b s d
s sf t s
(2.22)

Supposing the solid domain s is discretized into N snod nodes and N sel triangular

elements, then the displacement field u H1 and test weight function v s H10 can be
approximated by
us Ns d s ; v s Nscs (2.23)

10
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

where vector d s contains the approximate displacement values at nodes; c s contains

the chosen test values at nodes; and N s contains the finite element shape functions for
the solid domain.
Similarly as in the fluid domain, by choosing N snod linear independent vectors c s

such that v s1 v s 2 v sN nod N s1 Ns 2 N sN nod Ns , we obtain the finite

s s
element formulation for the solid domain from Eq. (2.22) as

N s N s dd s ( s N s )T Ds s N s dd s NTs nss d N t d N b d
T T T
s s s s s (2.24)
s s sf t s

and the governing system of equations for the solid domain can be written
M s d s + K s d s = f f + fb (2.25)
where

N s N s d ; Ks ( N ) Ds s N s d
T T
Ms = s s s
s s
(2.26)
ff NTs ns s d fb N t d N b d
T T
; s s s s
sf t s

in which f f represents the force caused by the fluid domain at the interface between the fluid

and solid domains, and fb represents the force in the solid domain.

2.2.3 FEM for the coupled fluid - solid system [3]

At the boundary between the solid and fluid domains, denoted sf , the fluid

particles and the solid moves together in the normal direction of the boundary.
Introducing the normal vector n nx ny n fx n fy nsx nsy , the continuous

boundary condition in displacement can be written

u s |sf u f |sf

or nu s nu f on sf (2.27)

and the continuity in pressure is written

11
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

nsx
s |n n s s p nT p (2.28)
nsy
T
where u f u fx u fx is the displacement of the fluid particles and p is the fluid

pressure. Using Eq. (2.28), the force vector f f in Eq.(2.26) can be expressed in the

fluid pressure by
ff
sf
NTs nss d
sf
NTs nT pd
sf
NTs nT N f d p f
(2.29)

For the fluid partition, the coupling is introduced in the force term f s (in Eq.
(2.14)). Using the relation between pressure and acceleration in the fluid domain
2u f (t )
p 0 (2.30)
t 2
and the boundary condition in Eq. (2.27) , the force acting on the fluid can be described
in terms of structural acceleration
2u f (t ) 2u s (t )
np|sf 0n |sf 0n |sf 0nN sd s |sf (2.31)
t 2 t 2
and the boundary force term of the fluid domain, f s in Eq. (2.14), can be expressed in
structural acceleration
f s =c02
sf
NTf n f pd c02
sf
NTf np d 0c02
sf
NTf nN s d d s
(2.32)

The introduction of a spatial coupling matrix

H
sf
NTs nT N f d
(2.33)

allows the coupling forces to be written as

f f Hp f (2.34)
and
fs = c02 0 HT d s (2.35)
The fluid - solid interaction problem can then be described by an unsymmetrical
system of equations

12
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

Ms 0 d s K s H d s fb
c 2 HT
M f p f 0 K f p f fq
(2.36)
0 0

2.2.4 ES-FEM-T3 for the fluid domain

Similar to the FEM-T3, the ES-FEM-T3 also uses a mesh of triangular elements.
The shape functions used in the ES-FEM-T3 are also identical to those in the FEM-T3,
and hence the pressure field in the ES-FEM-T3 is also ensured to be continuous on the
whole problem domain. However, being different from the FEM-T3 which computes
the stiffness matrix K f based on the elements, the ES-FEM-T3 uses the gradient

smoothing technique [5] to compute the stiffness matrix based on the edges. The
stiffness matrix in the ES-FEM-T3 hence is called the smoothed stiffness matrix and
symbolized K f . In this process, the finite element mesh in the fluid domain is divided
N ed
f
k
into smoothing cells f based on edges of elements such that f fk and
k 1

(fi ) (f j ) , i j , in which N ed
f is the total number of edges of the finite element

mesh. For triangular elements, the smoothing domain fk associated with the edge k is

created by connecting two endpoints of the edge to centroids of adjacent elements as

shown in Figure 2.2.
H
boundary
edge m

(m)
D E
A
(m)
inner edge k

C

(k)
G

(k)
B

: field node : centroid of triangles

Figure 2.2. Triangular elements and the smoothing domains associated with edges in
ES-FEM-T3.

13
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

Applying the edge-based smoothing operation, the pressure gradient p in

Eq. (2.9) is used to create a smoothed pressure gradient p k on the smoothing cell

fk associated with edge k such as:

p k p x d
k
f
(2.37)
f
k

where fk x is a given smoothing function that satisfies at least unity property

fk x d 1 . Using the following constant smoothing function

f
k

1/ Af k x fk
f k
x (2.38)
0 x fk

where Af k d is the area of the cell f and applying a divergence theorem, one
k

f
k

can obtain the smoothed pressure gradient p k that are constants over the domain

fk as follows

1

p x nfk x d
T
p k
Af k f
k
(2.39)

where fk is the boundary of the domain fk as shown in Figure 2.2, and

nfk x nfxk nfyk is the outward normal vector on the boundary f .

k

In the ES-FEM-T3, the trial pressure function p x is the same as in Eq. (2.12) of

the FEM and therefore the force vectors f s and f q in the ES-FEM-T3 are calculated in

the same way as in the FEM.

Substituting p x in Eq. (2.12) into Eq. (2.39), the smoothed pressure gradient

p
k
on the cell fk associated with edge k can be written in the following matrix

form of nodal displacements

p k B x p fI k I
(2.40)
I N f
k

14
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

where N f k is the total number of nodes of elements containing the common edge

k ( N f k 3 for boundary edges and N f k 4 for inner edges as shown in Figure 2.2),

and B fI xk is termed as the smoothed pressure gradient matrix on the cell fk ,

b fIx x k
B fI x k (2.41)
b fIy x k

and its components are calculated numerically using

1
b fIx xk N fI x nfxk x d ,
Af k f
k

(2.42)
1
b fIy xk k N fI x n fy x d
k
Af f
k

Using the linear shape function of triangles as in Eq. (2.12) of the FEM-T3, the
pressure field in the ES-FEM-T3 is linear compatible along the boundary (fk ) . Hence,

one Gaussian point is sufficient for line integration along each segment of boundary
fik of fk , the above equation can be further simplified to its algebraic form

N x n l
M
1
b fIx xk GP k k

Af k
fI i fxi fi
i 1
(2.43)
N x n
M
1
b fIy xk k fI
GP
i
k k
l
fyi fi
Af i 1

where M is the total number of the boundary segments of fik , xGP

i is the midpoint

(Gaussian point) of the boundary segment of fik , whose length and outward unit

normal vector are denoted as l fik and nfik nfxik nfyik , respectively.

The smoothed stiffness matrix K f of the system is then assembled by a similar

process as in the FEM
N ed
f

K f K fIJk (2.44)
k 1

where K fIJk is the smoothed stiffness matrix associated with edge k and is calculated by

15
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

K fIJ
k
c02 BTfI B fJ d c02BTfI B fJ Af k
(2.45)
(fk )

2.2.5 nES-FEM for the solid domain [27]

In the nES-FEM, the domain discretization is still based on polygonal elements of
arbitrary number of sides. However, being different from the FEM which computes the
stiffness matrix K s based on the elements, the nES-FEM uses the gradient smoothing
technique [5] to compute the stiffness matrix based on the edges. The stiffness matrix
in the nES-FEM hence is called the smoothed stiffness matrix and symbolized K s . In
this process, the solid domain s is divided into smoothing domains associated with
N sed
edges such that s sk and si s j , i j , in which N sed is the total number
k 1

of edges of the solid domain. For n-sided polygonal elements, the smoothing domain
(sk ) associated with the edge k is created by connecting two endpoints of the edge to

the two central points of the two adjacent elements as shown in Figure 2.3.

boundary edge m (AB)

B A
(m)
(ABI )

O I (m)
(AB, BI, IA)

edge k D
(CD)
(k)

C (CKDO)
K
(k)

(CK,KD,DO,OC)

: field node : central point of elements (I, O, K)

Figure 2.3. Domain discretization and the smoothing domains (shaded areas)
associated with edges of n-sided polygonal elements in the nES-FEM.

16
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

Applying the edge-based smoothing operation, the compatible displacement

gradient s u s in Eq. (2.22) is used to create a smoothed displacement gradient s u s on

the smoothing domain sk associated with edge k such as:

s u(sk ) x u x x d
(k )
s s s
(2.46)
s
k

where (sk ) x is a given smoothing function that satisfies at least unity property

x d 1. Using the following constant smoothing function

(k )
s
s
k

k

1/ As x sk
(k )
x (2.47)
x sk
s

0

where As k d is the area of the smoothing domain s and applying a divergence

k

s
k

theorem, one can obtain the smoothed displacement gradient s u(sk ) that is constant

over the domain sk as follows

n x
1
s u(sk ) x u s x d
T
k

As k
s (2.48)
s
k

where sk is the boundary of the domain sk as shown in Figure 2.3, and nsk x is

the outward normal matrix on the boundary sk and has the form
nsx k 0 nsy k
ns x
k
(2.49)
0 nsy k nsx k

In the nES-FEM, the trial displacement function u s x is the same as in Eq. (2.23)

of the FEM and therefore the force vectors f f and fb in the nES-FEM are calculated in

the same way as in the FEM.

Substituting u s x in Eq. (2.23) into Eq. (2.48), the smoothed displacement

gradient s u(sk ) on the smoothing domain sk associated with edge k can be written in
the following matrix form of nodal displacements

17
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

s u(sk ) B x d sI k I (2.50)
I N s
k

where Ns k is the total number of nodes of elements containing the common edge k
( Ns k 3 for boundary edges and Ns k 4 for inner edges as shown in Figure 2.3), and
B sI xk is termed as the smoothed displacement gradient matrix on the smoothing

domain sk ,

bsIx x k 0

B sI x k 0 bsIy x k (2.51)

bsIy x k bsIx x k
and its nonzero components are calculated numerically using
1
bsIx xk N sI x nsx k x d ,
As k s
k

(2.52)
1
bsIy xk k N sI x nsy k x d
As s
k

When a linear compatible displacement field along the boundary sk is used, one
Gaussian point is sufficient for line integration along each segment of boundary sik of

sk , the above equation can be further simplified to its algebraic form

N x n l
M
1
bsIx xk GP k k

As k
sI i six si
i 1
(2.53)
N x n
M
1
bsIy xk k sI
GP
i
k k
l
siy si
As i 1

where M is the total number of the boundary segments sik , xGP

i is the midpoint

(Gaussian point) of the boundary segment sik , whose length and outward unit normal

are denoted as lsi k and nsik nsxi

k k
nsyi , respectively.
Eq. (2.53) implies that only shape function values at some particular points along
segments of boundary sik are needed and no derivatives of the shape function are
required. This gives tremendous freedom in shape function construction. In this thesis,
18
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

the simple averaging method [13, 6] for constructing nES-FEM shape functions is
used, and is briefted in subsection 2.3.2.
The smoothed stiffness matrix K s of the system is then assembled by a similar
process as in the FEM
N sed
K s K sIJk (2.54)
k 1

where K sIJk is the smoothed stiffness matrix associated with edge k and is calculated by

K sIJk BTsI DB sJ d BTsI DB sJ As k

(2.55)
(sk )

2.2.6 A coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM method for the fluid-solid interaction problems

As shown in subsection 2.2.4 and 0, the difference between the FEM and the
smoothed FEM is the way to compute the stiffness matrix. In the FEM, the stiffness
matrix K f and K s is computed based on the elements. While in the ES-FEM and nES-

FEM, the smoothed stiffness matrix K f and K s , respectively in the fluid and solid

domains, are computed based on the edge-based smoothing domains through the
gradient smoothing technique [5]. Hence, based on the system of Eq (2.36) for the fluid
solid interaction problems using the FEM, the system of equations for the 2D fluid
solid interaction problems using the coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM will be expressed
in the following form
Ms 0 d s K s H d s fb
c 2 HT
M f p f 0
(2.56)
0 0 K f p f f q

where K s and K f in Eq. (2.36) is replaced, respectively, by K s in Eq. (2.54) and K f

in Eq. (2.44).

2.3 Dynamic analysis

Because the ES-FEM-T3 and nES-FEM is both spatially and temporally stable [13,
16, 27], it suits well for dynamic problems, such as free and forced vibrations analyses.

19
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

Without the damping forces are also considered in the dynamic equilibrium
equations, the system of Eq. (2.56) for the fluidsolid interaction problems using the
coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM can be expressed as follows:
Kx Mx F (2.57)
where
ds K H Ms 0 fb
x ; K s ; M 2 T F
M f
; (2.58)
p f 0 K f 0c0 H f q
A general solution of such a homogenous equation can be written as
x x exp it (2.59)
where t indicates time, x is the amplitude of the sinusoidal displacements and is the
angular frequency. On its substitution into Eq. (2.57), the natural frequency can be
found by solving the following eigenvalue equation.
K 2M x 0 (2.60)

2.3.1 Lump mass matrix in the nES-FEM

In dynamic analysis using the nES-FEM, we can use the usual consistent mass
matrix defined in Eq. (2.26) to compute. However, this computational process will be
rather difficult and cumbersome due to the sub-division of polygonal elements into
smoothing cells, and also due to the sub-division of the shape function of polygonal
elements into linear piecewise shape functions on smoothing cells [13]. In order to
avoid such difficulty and to incearse the computational efficiency, in this paper, we
propose the well-known lumped mass matrix for the n-sided polygonal elements e
such as
N nod N nod
M Mp tAp I p (2.61)
p 1 p 1

where M p is the lump mass matrix of pth node; I p is the identity matrix of size 2 2 ;
N nod is the total number of nodes of the problem domain; Ap is the area surrounding

the pth node and is created by connecting sequentially the mid-edge-point to the central

20
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

points of the surrounding n-sided polygonal elements of the node pth as shown in
Figure 2.4; and t are the mass density and the thickness of the element, respectively.

node
p

: field node : mid-edge point : central point of n-sided polygonal elements

Figure 2.4. Area Ap of field node p in a mesh of n-sided polygonal elements.

Note that the diagonal form of lumped mass matrix gives the superiority in terms of
computational efficiency over the consistent mass matrix in solving transient dynamics
problems [20].

2.3.2 Shape functions of the nES-FEM

The general shape functions of n-sided polygonal elements in the nES-FEM was
presented by Liu and Nguyen-Thoi in Ref [13]. However, in actual computation of the
nES-FEM, it is not necessary to use such shape functions to compute the smoothed
stiffness matrix K s . Instead, as shown in sub-section 2.2.4, we only need to evaluate
the shape function values at Gauss points along boundary segments of smoothing
domains to compute K s . This computational process is very simple and performed in 3
steps as follows:
Step 1: For each n-sided polygonal element, write explicitly the available shape
function values at the field nodes.

21
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

Step 2: Evaluate the shape function values at the central point of the n-sided
polygonal element by averaging the shape function values of n field nodes at
step 1.
Step 3: Evaluate the shape function values at Gauss points along boundary
segments of smoothing domains by linear interpolation from the available shape
function values of n field nodes and central point.

5 3

n(k) A
s
g2
6 g1 2
(k)
s n(k)
s

1
7 n(k)
s
g3
g4 (k)
B s
n(k)
s
8 9
: field node : central point of n-sided polygonal element : Gauss point

Figure 2.5. Gauss points of the smoothing domains associated with edges for n-sided
polygonal elements in the nES-FEM.
Figure 2.5 and Table 2.1 give explicitly the shape function values at different
points of the smoothing domain associated with the edge 1-6. The number of support
nodes for the smoothing domain is 9 (from #1 to #9). We have 4 segments (sik ) on
(sk ) (1A, A6, 6B, B1). Each segment needs only one Gauss point, and therefore, there
are a total of 4 Gauss points (g1, g2, g3, g4) used for the entire smoothing domain
(sk ) associated with edge k (1-6), and the shape function values at these 4 Gauss

points can be tabulated in Table 2.1 by simple inspection.

It should be mentioned that the purpose of introducing of central points such as point
O in Figure 2.5 is to facilitate the evaluation of the values of shape functions at some

22
Chapter 2 The fundamental theories

Table 2.1. Shape function values at different sites on the smoothing domain boundary
associated with the edge 1-6 in Figure 2.5.
Site Node Node Node Node Node Node Node Node Node Description
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Field node
2 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Field node
3 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Field node
4 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 Field node
5 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 Field node
6 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 Field node
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 Field node
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 Field node
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 Field node
A 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 0 0 0 Centroid of element
B 1/5 0 0 0 0 1/5 1/5 1/5 1/5 Centroid of element
g1 7/12 1/12 1/12 1/12 1/12 1/12 0 0 0 Mid-segment point of
(sik )

g2 1/12 1/12 1/12 1/12 1/12 7/12 0 0 0 Mid-segment point of

(sik )

g3 1/10 0 0 0 0 6/10 1/10 1/10 1/10 Mid-segment point of

(sik )

g4 6/10 0 0 0 0 1/10 1/10 1/10 1/10 Mid-segment point of

(sik )

discrete points inside and on the segments of the interested element. There is no extra
degrees of freedom are associated with these added points. In other words, these points
carry no additional independent field variable. Therefore, the total degrees of freedom
(DOFs) of a nES-FEM model will be exactly the same as the standard FEM using the
same set of nodes.
23
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

Chapter 3
NUMERICAL EXAMPLES

In this section, two numerical examples are performed to show the advantageous
properties of the proposed coupling ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM method for 2D fluid-solid
interaction problems. The numerical results of coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM will be
compared with those of the coupled FEM-T3/FEM-T3 using triangular elements for
both fluid and solid domains, and of the coupled FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 using quadrilateral
elements for both fluid and solid domains. In addition, to illustrate the convergent
property of the numerical methods, the reference solution by the coupled FEM-
Q8/FEM-Q8 using 8-node elements with a very fine element mesh for both solid and
fluid domain will be used.

3.1 2D deformable solid backed by a closed box filled with water

Figure 3.1. Model of the 2D deformable solid backed by a closed box filled with water.
The 2D deformable solid in this example has the dimension of 10m 1m. The solid
is given the following data, density of the material s 2500 kg/m2 , elastic modulus

E 2.1109 N/m2 , poissons ratio 0.3, and is fixed supported at two ends. A closed
box filled with water is attached to the solid and has the dimension of 10m 4m The
following data were used in the fluid, 1000 kg/m2 and speed of air c 1500m/s2 .
24
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

The model is shown in Figure 3.1 and a discretization of the model using n-sided
polygonal elements for solid domain and triangular elements for fluid domain is shown
in Figure 3.2.

Figure 3.2. A discretization using n-sided polygonal elements for solid domain and
triangular elements for fluid domain for the 2D deformable solid backed by a closed
box filled with water.
3.1.1 Free vibration analysis
The eigenmodes analysis for the fluidsolid system is first investigated. The
solution of coupling FEM-Q8/FEM-Q8 with 729 degree of freedom (DOFs) for fluid
and 1290 DOFs for solid is used as reference solution. Figure 3.3 shows the
convergence of the first coupled eigenmode by 3 different coupled methods: FEM-
T3/FEM-T3, FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 and ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM. The results show that
with the same of DOFs, the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM is the best one.
Figure 3.7 shows the shape and value of eight first coupled eigenmodes by the ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM. It is seen that that the shapes of eigenmodes express suitably the
real physical modes without having any of the spurious non-zero energy modes. In
addition, Figure 3.4 compares eight values of coupled eigenmodes by different coupled

25
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

Figure 3.3. Convergence of the first coupled eigenmode by 3 different coupled

methods: FEM-T3/FEM-T3, FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 and ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.4. Comparison of eight coupled eigenmodes of the fluid-solid system by 3

different coupled methods: FEM-T3/FEM-T3, FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 and ES-FEM-
T3/nES-FEM.

26
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

methods. Again, it is seen that the results of the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM is closest to the
reference solution.

Figure 3.5. A discretization using n-sided polygonal elements for solid domain and
very distorted triangular elements for fluid domain

Figure 3.6. Comparison of eight coupled eigenmodes of the fluid-solid system by

situation distorted mesh and uniform mesh of ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM method

27
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

For free vibration analysis, solutions of higher modes can be quite sensitive to the
distorted meshes. However, it is not the case for the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM method as
shown in Figure 3.6 with the case of distorted mesh shown in Figure 3.5.

Mode 1 Mode 2

Mode 3 Mode 4

Mode 5 Mode 6

Mode 7 Mode 8
Figure 3.7. Shape of eight coupled eigenmodes of the fluid-solid system by ES-FEM-
T3/nES-FEM

28
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

3.1.2 Forced vibration analysis

The forced frequency response analysis for the fluidsolid system by the the ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM is now investigated. First, the force applied to the solid is a
harmonic vertical point load F (x, ) c x ieit , where i is the imaginary unit and

c x is the Dirac function at the point x. Considering the case t 0 , the point x is put

at point A(2.0, 5.0) is shown in Figure 3.2, and / 2 is changed from 3Hz to 17Hz
where the value of three first coupled eigenfrequencies appears as shown in Figure 3.7.
The displacement responses measured at the loaded point A(2.0, 5.0) is shown in
Figure 3.8. It is seen clearly that the peaks of the three first responses occur exactly at
the values of three first eigenfrequencies as shown in Figure 3.7. Similarly, if we
change the position of loaded point x to the new coordinate in the fluid domain B(2.0,
3.0) and keep everything unchanged, we get the displacement responses measured at
the point A(2.0, 5.0) as shown in Figure 3.9. Again, it is seen clearly that the peaks of
the three first responses occur exactly at the values of three first eigenfrequencies.
These results imply that the forced frequency response analysis by the ES-FEM-
T3/nES-FEM can provide sufficient information about the eigen frequencies of the
fluid-solid interaction system, where the peaks of the response occur.
In addition, the forced frequency response analysis also shows clearly the difference
of eigenfrequencies between the solid system without coupling with the fluid and the
fluid-solid interaction system as shown in Table 3.1 and Figure 3.10. It is seen that the
eigenfrequencies of the solid system without coupling with the fluid are smaller than
those of the fluid-solid interaction system. It is hence necessary to use the fluid-solid
interaction system to model accurately the solid system coupling with the fluid. Figure
3.11 compares the forced frequency response analysis between the ES-FEM-T3/nES-
FEM and FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4. It is seen that the displacement responses of the ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM is closest to those of the reference solution by FEM-Q8/FEM-Q8.
In addition, as depicted in Figure 3.11, at lower frequencies, both the coupled ES-FEM-
T3/nES-FEM and FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 can provide quite good results. However, with

29
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

Figure 3.8. Forced frequency response at the point A(2.0, 5.0) in the solid domain with
the force applied also to the the point A(2.0, 5.0) by the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.9. Forced frequency response at the point A(2.0, 5.0) in the solid domain
with the force applied to the the point B(2.0, 3.0) in the fluid domain
by the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.
30
 Chapter 3 Numerical examples

the increase in the frequency, the results obtained from the coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-
FEM are still in good agreement with the reference results and provide accurate
eigenfrequencies prediction in these frequencies range; while the deviation between the
coupled FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 and the reference is becoming larger as the frequency
becomes higher.

Figure 3.10 Compare the forced frequency response at the point A(2.0, 5.0) in the
solid domain with the force applied also to the point A(2.0, 5.0) by the
ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM and by the nES-FEM for solid domain
without coupling with the fluid domain.
Table 3.1. Value of eight first coupled and uncoupled eigenmodes

Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 4 Mode 5 Mode 6 Mode 7 Mode 8

Structure without
coupling 2.9891 7.5773 13.5226 15.2688 20.2439 27.3707 30.2838 34.6468
Structure with
coupling 5.3576 10.1360 15.2297 17.0510 23.4670 30.1796 31.1982 37.7506

31
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

FEM Q4 - FEM Q4

-5
10
Disp

-10
10
ESFEM T3 - nESFEM
Reference solution (FEM Q8 - FEM Q8)

5 10 15 20 25 30
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 3.11. Compare the forced frequency response at the point A(2.0, 5.0) in the
solid domain with the force applied also to the the point A(2.0, 5.0) between the ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM and FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4.

0.8

0.6
FEM Q4 - FEM Q4
0.4

0.2
Disp

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6
ESFEM T3 - nESFEM FEM Q8 - FEM Q8
-0.8
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Times (s)

Figure 3.12. Compare the transient response at the point A(2.0, 5.0) in the solid
domain with the force applied also to the the point A(2.0, 5.0) between the ES-FEM-
T3/nES-FEM and FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4.

32
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

Figure 3.12 compares the transient response between the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM

and FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4. Again, it is seen that the displacement responses of the ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM is closest to those of the reference solution by FEM-Q8/FEM-Q8.
This numerical example hence shows that the coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM provides
more accurate results in eigenfrequencies, frequency responses and transient responses
than those of many existing coupled FEM/FEM models.

3.2 2D deformable water dam

Figure 3.13. Model of 2D deformable water dam

A deformable water dam, with dimensions as shown in Figure 3.13, is given the
following data, density of the material s 2500 kg/m2 , elastic modulus E 2.1109

N/m2 , poissons ratio 0.3, and is fixed at the dams foundation. The water is
attached to the dam and has the dimension of 10m 4m . The following data were used
in the fluid, 1000 kg/m2 and speed of air c 1500m/s2 . The model is shown in
Figure 3.13, and a discretization using n-sided polygonal elements for solid domain
and quadrilateral elements for fluid domain is shown in Figure 3.14.
The eigenmodes analysis for the fluidsolid system is investigated. The solution of
coupled FEM-Q8/FEM-Q8 with 697 degree of freedom (DOFs) for fluid and 1570
DOFs for solid is used as reference solution. Figure 3.15 shows the convergence of the
33
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

first coupled eigenmode by 3 different coupled methods: FEM-T3/FEM-T3, FEM-

Q4/FEM-Q4 and ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM. The results show that with the same of
DOFs, the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM is the best one.

Figure 3.14. A discretization using n-sided polygonal elements for the dam and
triangular elements for fluid domain.

Figure 3.15. Convergence of the first coupled eigenmode by 3 different coupled

methods: FEM-T3/FEM-T3, FEM-Q4/FEM-Q4 and ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

34
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

Figure 3.18 shows the shape and value of eight first coupled eigenmodes by the ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM. It is seen that the shapes of eigenmodes express suitably the real
physical modes without having any of the spurious non-zero energy modes.
The forced frequency response analysis for the fluidsolid system by the the ES-
FEM-T3/nES-FEM is now investigated. First, the force applied to structure is a
harmonic vertical point load F (x, ) c x ieit , where c x is the Dirac function at

the point x. Considering the case t 0 , the point x is put at point C(10.0, 5.0) as shown
in Figure 3.14, and / 2 is changed from 8Hz to 24Hz where the value of three first
coupled eigenfrequencies appears as shown in Figure 3.18. The displacement responses
measured at the loaded point C(10.0, 5.0) is shown in Figure 3.16. It is seen clearly that
the peaks of the three first responses occur exactly at the values of three first
eigenfrequencies as shown in Figure 3.18. Similarly, if we change the position of
loaded point x to the new coordinate in the fluid domain D(8.0,1.0) and keep
everything unchanged, we get the displacement responses measured at the point
C(10.0, 5.0) as shown in Figure 3.17. Again, it is seen clearly that the peaks of the three
first responses occur exactly at the values of three first eigenfrequencies. These results
imply that the forced frequency response analysis by the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM can
provide sufficient information about the eigenfrequencies of the fluid-solid interaction
system, where the peaks of the response occur.

35
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

Figure 3.16. Forced frequency response at the point C(10.0, 5.0) in the solid domain
with the force applied also to the the point C(10.0, 5.0) by the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

Figure 3.17. Forced frequency response at the point C(10.0, 5.0) in the solid domain
with the force applied to the the point D(8.0, 1.0) by the ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

36
Chapter 3 Numerical examples

Mode 1 Mode 2

Mode 3 Mode 4

Mode 5 Mode 6

Mode 7 Mode 8

Figure 3.18. Shape of eight coupled eigenmodes of the fluid-solid system by the ES-

FEM-T3/nES-FEM.

37
Chapter 4 Conclusions and recommendations

Chapter 4
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Conclusions
In this thesis, the ES-FEM and nES-FEM are combined to further extend to the
dynamic analysis of 2D fluid-solid interaction problems based on the pressure-
displacement formulation. In the present coupled method, the fluid domain is
discretized by triangular elements and the ES-FEM is used, while the solid domain is
discretized by n-sided polygonal elements and the nES-FEM is used. In both the fluid
and solid domains, the gradient smoothing technique based on the smoothing domains
associated with the edges of the elements is used to smooth the gradient of pressure
and gradient of displacement, respectively. This gradient smoothing technique can
provide proper softening effect, which will effectively relieve the overly stiff behavior
of the standard FEM model and thus improve significantly the solution of coupled
system. In addition, a simple lump mass matrix for the nES-FEM is also proposed and
hence the complicated integrations related to computing the consistent mass matrix can
be avoided in the nES-FEM. Some numerical examples have been presented to
illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM compared with
some existing methods for 2D fluid-solid interaction problems. The numerical
examples show that the coupled ES-FEM-T3/nES-FEM provides more accurate results
in eigenfrequencies, frequency responses and transient responses than those of many
existing coupled FEM/FEM models.

4.2 Recommendations
Basing on the results of the 2D fluid-structure interaction problems in this thesis,
we intend to further develop the smoothed FEM models for the following problems:
- 3D fluid-structure interaction problems in which structure includes plates and
shells made by many kinds of new materials such as composite, piezo, grad, stiffen
38
Chapter 4 Conclusions and recommendations

materials, etc. In the fluid domain, we used tetrahedral elements and the gradient of
pressure will be smoothed. In the solid domain, we used different triangular plate and
shell elements, and gradient of displacements will be smoothed. The gradient
smoothing technique can be also developed to create new triangular plate elements and
new triangular shell elements, and hence many new models for 3D fluid-structure
interaction problems will be proposed.
- 2D fluid-structure interaction problems in which we consider the navier-stokes
equation for the flow of fluid. In this case, both pressure and velocity of the fluid will
be considered in the fluid domain, and hence the 2D fluid-structure interaction
problems will become much more difficult.
- 2D and 3D fluid-structure interaction problems in which we consider the large
deformation for both structure and fluid domains. The theory of large deformation and
the Arbitrary Lagrange Euler (ALE) method will be used for these cases, and fluid-
structure interaction problems will become much more difficult.

39
 References

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45
 Publications arising from thesis

PUBLICATIONS ARISING FROM THESIS

Journal

1. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, T. Rabczuk, H. Nguyen-Xuan, C. Le-Van

(2011) Free and forced vibration analysis using the n-sided polygonal cell-based
smoothed finite element method (nCS-FEM), International Journal of
Computational Methods (accepted).

2. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, T. Rabczuk, H. Nguyen-Xuan, C. Le-Van

(2011) An application of the ES-FEM in solid domain for dynamic analysis of
2D fluid-solid interaction problems, International Journal of Computational
Methods (accepted).

3. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, H. Nguyen-Xuan, Chien H. Thai (2011) A

cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) using triangular
elements for static and free vibration analyses of Reissner-Mindlin plates.
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, (revised).

4. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, H. Nguyen-Xuan (2011) An edge-based

smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) for dynamic analyses of 2D fluid-
solid interaction problems, International Journal for Numerical Methods in
Engineering; (submitted).

5. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, H. Nguyen-Xuan, C. Le-Van (2011) A

coupled FEM/nES-FEM method for dynamic analyses of 2D fluid-solid
interaction problems, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and
Engineering; (submitted)

6. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, H. Nguyen-Xuan (2011) A coupled NS/nES-

FEM method for dynamic analysis of 2D fluid-solid interaction problems.
Applied Mathematics and Computation; (submitted)

46
 Publications arising from thesis

7. T. Nguyen-Thoi, N. Nguyen-Ngoc, P. Phung-Van (2011) A coupled nNS/nES-

FEM method for dynamic analyses of 2D fluid-solid interaction problems.
Computers and Structures; (submitted)

8. T. Nguyen-Thoi, N. Nguyen-Ngoc, P. Phung-Van (2011) A coupled alpha-

FEM for dynamic analyses of 2D fluid-solid interaction problems. Journal of
Computational and Applied Mathematics; (submitted)

9. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, H. Nguyen-Xuan (2011) A coupled ES-

FEM/nES-FEM method for dynamic analysis of 2D fluid-solid interaction
problems, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences; (submitted).

10. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, H. Nguyen-Van, H. Nguyen-Xuan (2011) A

cell-based smoothed three-node Mindlin plate element (CS-MIN3) for static and
free vibration analyses of plates. Computational Mechanics, (submitted).

11. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, S. Nguyen-Hoai, H. Nguyen-Xuan (2011) An

edge-based smoothed three-node Mindlin plate element (ES-MIN3) for static
and free vibration analyses of plates. Finite Elements in Analysis and Design,
(submitted).

12. T. Nguyen-Thoi, P. Phung-Van, Chien H. Thai, H. Nguyen-Xuan (2011) A

cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) using triangular
elements for static and free vibration analyses of shell structures. Computer
Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, (submitted).

13. Nguyen-Thoi T, P. Phung-Van, Nguyen-Xuan H (2011) A modified linearly

conforming point interpolation method (MLC-PIM) for visco-elastoplastic
analyses of 2D solids. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and
Engineering; (submitted).

14. Nguyen-Thoi T, P. Phung-Van, Nguyen-Xuan H (2011) A linearly conforming

point interpolation method (LC-PIM) for visco-elastoplastic analyses of solids.
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering; (submitted).

47
 Publications arising from thesis

15. Nguyen-Thoi T, Tran-Vinh L, P. Phung-Van, Thai-Hoang C, Nguyen-Xuan H

(2011) A cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG) using the
C0-type higher-order shear deformation theory for static, free vibration and
buckling analyses of laminated composite plates. Composite Structures;
(submitted).

16. Nguyen-Thoi T, Tran-Vinh L, P. Phung-Van, Thai-Hoang C, Nguyen-Xuan H

(2011) A cell-based smoothed three-node Mindlin plate element (CS-MIN3)
using the C0-type higher-order shear deformation theory for static, free vibration
and buckling analyses of laminated composite plates. International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences; (submitted).

List of Conference papers

1. Nguyen Ngoc Nhan, Phung Van Phuc, Nguyen Thoi Trung, Dynamic analysis
of 2D fluid-solid interaction problems by an alpha finite element method
(FEM). International Conference on Advanced Computing and Applications
Ho Chi Minh City (ACOMP 2011), October 19-21, 2011, (accepted).

2. Phung Van Phuc, Nguyen Thoi Trung, A n-sided polygonal edge-based smooth
finite element method (nES-FEM) for dynamic analyses of 2D fluid-solid
interaction problems. International Conference on Advanced Computing and
Applications Ho Chi Minh City (ACOMP 2011), October 19-21, 2011,
(accepted).

3. Nguyen Thoi Trung, Phung Van Phuc, Nguyen Xuan Hung, Dynamic analysis
of 2D fluid-solid interaction problems by an edge-based smoothed finite element
method (ES-FEM). International Conference on Advanced Computing and
Applications Ho Chi Minh City (ACOMP 2011), October 19-21, 2011,
(accepted).

48
 Publications arising from thesis

4. Nguyen Thoi Trung, Phung Van Phuc, Nguyen Xuan Hung, Thai Hoang
Chien. Free vibration analysis of Reissner-Mindlin plates by a cell-based
smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) using triangular elements. 1st
International Symposium on Engineering Physics and Mechanics (ISEPM
2011), October 25-26/2011, (accepted).

5. Phung Van Phuc, Nguyen Thoi Trung. Static analysis of Reissner-Mindlin

plates by a cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) using
triangular elements. 1st International Symposium on Engineering Physics and
Mechanics (ISEPM 2011), October 25-26/2011, (accepted).

49