CHAP 3 WEIGHTED RESIDUAL AND

ENERGY METHOD FOR 1D PROBLEMS

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Nam-Ho Kim

1
 INTRODUCTION
• Direct stiffness method is limited for simple 1D problems
• FEM can be applied to many engineering problems that are
governed by a differential equation
• Need systematic approaches to generate FE equations
– Weighted residual method
– Energy method
• Ordinary differential equation (second-order or fourth-order)
can be solved using the weighted residual method, in
particular using Galerkin method
• Principle of minimum potential energy can be used to derive
finite element equations

2
 EXACT VS. APPROXIMATE SOLUTION
• Exact solution
– Boundary value problem: differential equation + boundary conditions
– Displacements in a uniaxial bar subject to a distributed force p(x)

– Essential BC: The solution value at a point is prescribed (displacement

or kinematic BC)
– Natural BC: The derivative is given at a point (stress BC)
– Exact solution u(x): twice differential function
– In general, it is difficult to find the exact solution when the domain
and/or boundary conditions are complicated
– Sometimes the solution may not exists even if the problem is well
defined
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 EXACT VS. APPROXIMATE SOLUTION cont.
• Approximate solution
– It satisfies the essential BC, but not natural BC
– The approximate solution may not satisfy the DE exactly
– Residual:

– Want to minimize the residual by multiplying with a weight W and

integrate over the domain

Weight function

– If it satisfies for any W(x), then R(x) will approaches zero, and the
approximate solution will approach the exact solution
– Depending on choice of W(x): least square error method, collocation
method, Petrov-Galerkin method, and Galerkin method

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 GALERKIN METHOD
• Approximate solution is a linear combination of trial functions

Trial function

– Accuracy depends on the choice of trial functions

– The approximate solution must satisfy the essential BC
• Galerkin method
– Use N trial functions for weight functions

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 GALERKIN METHOD cont.
• Galerkin method cont.
– Integration-by-parts: reduce the order of differentiation in u(x)

– Apply natural BC and rearrange

– Same order of differentiation for both trial function and approx. solution
– Substitute the approximate solution

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 GALERKIN METHOD cont.
• Galerkin method cont.
– Write in matrix form

– Coefficient matrix is symmetric; Kij = Kji

– N equations with N unknown coefficients

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 EXAMPLE1
• Differential equation Trial functions

• Approximate solution (satisfies the essential BC)

• Coefficient matrix and RHS vector

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 EXAMPLE1 cont.
• Matrix equation

• Approximate solution

– Approximate solution is also the exact solution because the linear

combination of the trial functions can represent the exact solution

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 EXAMPLE2
• Differential equation Trial functions

• Coefficient matrix is same, force vector:

• Exact solution

– The trial functions cannot express the exact solution; thus,

approximate solution is different from the exact one

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 EXAMPLE2 cont.
• Approximation is good for u(x), but not good for du/dx

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 HIGHER-ORDER DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
• Fourth-order differential equation

– Beam bending under pressure load

• Approximate solution

• Weighted residual equation (Galerkin method)

– In order to make the order of differentiation same, integration-by-parts

must be done twice

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 HIGHER-ORDER DE cont.
• After integration-by-parts twice

• Substitute approximate solution

– Do not substitute the approx. solution in the boundary terms

• Matrix form

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 EXMAPLE
• Fourth-order DE

• Two trial functions

• Coefficient matrix

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• RHS

• Approximate solution

• Exact solution

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EXAMPLE cont.

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 FINITE ELEMENT APPROXIMATION
• Domain Discretization
– Weighted residual method is still difficult to obtain the trial functions
that satisfy the essential BC
– FEM is to divide the entire domain into a set of simple sub-domains
(finite element) and share nodes with adjacent elements
– Within a finite element, the solution is approximated in a simple
polynomial form

– When more number of finite elements are used, the approximated

piecewise linear solution may converge to the analytical solution
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 FINITE ELEMENT METHOD cont.
• Types of finite elements

1D 2D 3D

• Variational equation is imposed on each element.

One element

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 TRIAL SOLUTION
– Solution within an element is approximated using simple polynomials.

– i-th element is composed of two nodes: xi and xi+1. Since two

unknowns are involved, linear polynomial can be used:

– The unknown coefficients, a0 and a1, will be expressed in terms of

nodal solutions u(xi) and u(xi+1).

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 TRIAL SOLUTION cont.
– Substitute two nodal values

– Express a0 and a1 in terms of ui and ui+1. Then, the solution is

approximated by

– Solution for i-th element:

– Ni(x) and Ni+1(x): Shape Function or Interpolation Function

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 TRIAL SOLUTION cont.
• Observations
– Solution u(x) is interpolated using its nodal values ui and ui+1.
– Ni(x) = 1 at node xi, and =0 at node xi+1.
Ni(x) Ni+1(x)

xi xi+1
– The solution is approximated by piecewise linear polynomial and its
gradient is constant within an element.

– Stress and strain (derivative) are often averaged at the node.

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 GALERKIN METHOD
• Relation between interpolation functions and trial functions
– 1D problem with linear interpolation

– Difference: the interpolation function does not exist in the entire

domain, but it exists only in elements connected to the node
• Derivative

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 EXAMPLE
• Solve using two equal-length elements

• Three nodes at x = 0, 0.5, 1.0; displ at nodes = u1, u2, u3

• Approximate solution

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• Derivatives of interpolation functions

• Coefficient matrix

• RHS

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• Matrix equation
Consider it as unknown

• Striking the 1st row and striking the 1st column (BC)

• Solve for u2 = 0.875, u3 = 1.5

• Approximate solution

– Piecewise linear solution

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• Solution comparison
• Approx. solution has about
8% error
• Derivative shows a large
discrepancy
• Approx. derivative is
constant as the solution is
piecewise linear

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 FORMAL PROCEDURE
• Galerkin method is still not general enough for computer code
• Apply Galerkin method to one element (e) at a time
• Introduce a local coordinate

• Approximate solution within the element

Element e

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 FORMAL PROCEDURE cont.
• Interpolation property

• Derivative of approx. solution

• Apply Galerkin method in the element level

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 FORMAL PROCEDURE cont.
• Change variable from x to ξ

– Do not use approximate solution for boundary terms

• Element-level matrix equation

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 FORMAL PROCEDURE cont.
• Need to derive the element-level equation for all elements
• Consider Elements 1 and 2 (connected at Node 2)

• Assembly
Vanished
unknown term

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 FORMAL PROCEDURE cont.
• Assembly of NE elements (ND = NE + 1)

• Coefficient matrix [K] is singular; it will become non-singular

after applying boundary conditions

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 EXAMPLE
• Use three equal-length elements

• All elements have the same coefficient matrix

• Change variable of p(x) = x to p(ξ):

• RHS

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• RHS cont.

• Assembly

Element 1
Element 2
Element 3

• Apply boundary conditions

– Deleting 1st and 4th rows and columns

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• Approximate solution

• Exact solution

– Three element solutions are poor

– Need more elements

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 ENERGY METHOD
• Powerful alternative method to obtain FE equations
• Principle of virtual work for a particle
– for a particle in equilibrium the virtual work is identically equal to zero
– Virtual work: work done by the (real) external forces through the virtual
displacements
– Virtual displacement: small arbitrary (imaginary, not real) displacement
that is consistent with the kinematic constraints of the particle
• Force equilibrium

• Virtual displacements: δu, δv, and δw

• Virtual work

• If the virtual work is zero for arbitrary virtual displacements,

then the particle is in equilibrium under the applied forces
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 PRINCIPLE OF VIRTUAL WORK
• Deformable body (uniaxial bar under body force and tip force)
x
E, A(x)
F
Bx

• Equilibrium equation: This is force equilibrium

• PVW

• Integrate over the area, axial force P(x) = Aσ(x)

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 PVW cont.
• Integration by parts

– At x = 0, u(0) = 0. Thus, δu(0) = 0

– the virtual displacement should be consistent with the displacement
constraints of the body
– At x = L, P(L) = F
• Virtual strain
• PVW:

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 PVW cont.
• in equilibrium, the sum of external and internal virtual work is
zero for every virtual displacement field
• 3D PVW has the same form with different expressions
• With distributed forces and concentrated forces

• Internal virtual work

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 VARIATION OF A FUNCTION
• Virtual displacements in the previous section can be
considered as a variation of real displacements
• Perturbation of displ u(x) by arbitrary virtual displ δu(x)

• Variation of displacement

Displacement variation

• Variation of a function f(u)

• The order of variation & differentiation can be interchangeable

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 PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM POTENTIAL ENERGY
• Strain energy density of 1D body

• Variation in the strain energy density by δu(x)

• Variation of strain energy

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 PMPE cont.
• Potential energy of external forces
– Force F is applied at x = L with corresponding virtual displ δu(L)
– Work done by the force = Fδu(L)
– The potential is reduced by the amount of work
F is constant
virtual displacement
– With distributed forces and concentrated force

• PVW

– Define total potential energy

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 EXAMPLE: PMPE TO DISCRETE SYSTEMS
• Express U and V in terms of u2
displacements, and then F3
1 2 3
differential Π w.r.t displacements
1
• k(1) = 100 N/mm, k(2) = 200 N/mm 3 F3
k(3) = 150 N/mm, F2 = 1,000 N 2 u3
F3 = 500 N u1

• Strain energy of elements (springs)

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• Strain energy of the system

• Potential energy of applied forces

• Total potential energy

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• Total potential energy is minimized with respect to the DOFs

Finite element equations

• Global FE equations

• Forces in the springs

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 RAYLEIGH-RITZ METHOD
• PMPE is good for discrete system (exact solution)
• Rayleigh-Ritz method approximates a continuous system as a
discrete system with finite number of DOFs
• Approximate the displacements by a function containing finite
number of coefficients
• Apply PMPE to determine the coefficients that minimizes the
total potential energy
• Assumed displacement (must satisfy the essential BC)

• Total potential energy in terms of unknown coefficients

• PMPE

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 EXAMPLE
bx
F

• L = 1m, A = 100mm2, E = 100 GPa, F = 10kN, bx = 10kN/m

• Approximate solution
• Strain energy

• Potential energy of forces

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 EXAMPLE cont.
• PMPE

• Approximate solution
• Axial force
• Reaction force

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