The development and applications of the helically symmetric boundary conditions in finite element analysis

✍ Scribed by Jiang, W. G. ;Henshall, J. L.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 274 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1069-8299
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0887(199906/07)15:6<435::aid-cnm257>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Helically symmetric structures such as helical springs, machine screws and wire rope strands are commonly used structural items. When they are subjected to axial loads (tensile and torsional), these structures may still exhibit the helically symmetric characteristic after loading. If this is the case this feature can be used to substantially simplify the analysis of these structures in numerical simulations. In this paper, the formulation of helically symmetric boundary conditions for ®nite element (FE) modelling is presented. The helically symmetric relationship is ensured by using constraint equations which relate the displacements of the corresponding nodes on the corresponding arti®cial boundaries of the model. The application of these helically symmetric equations renders it possible to reduce the ®nite element model size greatly and improve the accuracy of the results. Examples of a simple circular cross-section bar and wire rope strand are presented which demonstrate the validity of the formulation.