1154 MD Demonstration Problems

CHAPTER 59

Chapter 59: Shallow Cylindrical Shell Snap-through

Shallow Cylindrical Shell

59 Snap-through


Summary 1155

Introduction 1156

Modeling Details 1156

Solution Procedure 1158

Results and Discussion 1159

Input File(s) 1162

Video 1162
 References 1162
 CHAPTER 59 1155
Shallow Cylindrical Shell Snap-through

Summary
Title Chapter 59: Shallow Cylindrical Shell Snap-Through
Features Snap-through of a shallow cylindrical shell structure
Geometry

Material properties E = 3.10275 kN/mm2;  = 0.3

Analysis characteristics Nonlinear static analysis using (i) arc-length method (ii) adaptive load stepping method
with damping
Boundary conditions The straight edges of the shell are hinged and the curved edges are free
Applied loads A point load applied at the center of the shell
Element type Four node thin and thick shell elements
FE results Load-deflection response
1156 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 59

Introduction
The purpose of this document is to demonstrate the arc-length solution capability of Nastran to solve snap-through
problems using the ARCLN option in NLSTEP entry. The example considered is a shallow cylindrical shell structure
which exhibits snap-through and snap-back behaviors under the action of a point load. This problem is widely used
by many researchers to investigate and validate various nonlinear arc-length procedures. The challenge with load
control nonlinear solution methods is that they fail to converge at limit points where the tangent stiffness matrix is
singular. Hence, these methods are not suitable for applications where the response of a structure beyond the limit point
is of interest. Although displacement control methods can capture the snap-through behavior of such problems, they
fail at the point where snap-back begins. The arc-length method which is a path following technique allows the
analysis to pass the limit points without any difficulty.
The model is analyzed in MD Nastran using the SOL 400 solution sequence. Crisfield’s arc-length scheme is
utilized for the nonlinear solution procedure. Nastran analysis results are compared with that of published solutions
(Crisfield, 1981).

Modeling Details
The geometry of the model, shown in Figure 59-1, is a cylindrical shell with radius R = 2540 mm, length 2L = 508
mm, and thickness h = 6.35 mm. The straight edges of the structure are pin supported and the curved edges are free.
The cylindrical segment subtends an angle 2 = 0.2 radians with the axis of the cylinder. A point load P is applied at
the midpoint of the shell structure.
Since the structure exhibits bi-planar symmetry, only a quadrant of the geometry is considered for the finite element
analysis. A 6 x 6 shell element mesh is used to discretize the model. The case control options used for the solution
sequence SOL 400 are
SUBCASE 1
SET 100 = 6,36
STEP 1
ANALYSIS = NLSTATIC
NLSTEP = 1
SPC = 2
LOAD = 2
DISPLACEMENT(SORT1,REAL,PUNCH)=100
OLOAD(PLOT,PUNCH)= 100
SPC and LOAD cards are used to identify the set numbers for displacement boundary conditions and applied loads,
respectively. DISPLACEMENT and OLOAD cards represent the analysis output for displacements and loads.
 CHAPTER 59 1157
Shallow Cylindrical Shell Snap-through

Figure 59-1 Geometric Model of the Cylindrical Shell Structure

Element Modeling
Four node quadrilateral shell elements (CQUADR) are used to model the structure. Properties of the elements, such as
shell thickness, are defined through the PSHELL entry. Additional nonlinear properties for the shell elements
corresponding to PSHELL are specified using the PSHLN1 option. Keyword C4 indicates that the next two entries in
that input line apply to elements with four corner nodes. DCTN implies a doubly-curved thin shell element type, and
LDK is the integration code. For thick shell elements, DCT and L options are used for the structural property and
integration code, respectively.
PSHELL 1 1 6.35 1 1
PSHLN1 1
C4 DCTN LDK

Material Modeling
Linear isotropic material properties are defined using MAT1 entry. Elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio are the material
constant input for this analysis.
MAT1 1 3105. .3 1.

Loading and Boundary Conditions

Figure 59-2 shows the loading and boundary conditions applied on the finite element model of the shell structure.
Since a quarter model is utilized, symmetry boundary conditions are applied along the edges  z = 0 and z = 0 .
Translational displacements in the x- and y-directions are constrained on the nodes along the edge  z = –  , which is
pin supported. A concentrated load of magnitude -250 N (total load on the full model = -1000N) is applied in the y-
direction on the node located at the midpoint of the structure  x = 0, z = 0  .
1158 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 59

Figure 59-2 Loading and Boundary Conditions on the Finite Element Model

SPCADD and LOAD cards define the single point constraint and load sets, respectively. Displacement constraints and
concentrated nodal forces are specified using SPC1 and FORCE cards, respectively.
SPCADD 2 1 3 4
LOAD 2 1. 1.
$ Displacement Constraints of Load Set : pinned
SPC1 1 12 1 7 8 9 10 11
$ Displacement Constraints of Load Set : symmetry_z
SPC1 3 345 1 2 3 4 5 6
$ Displacement Constraints of Load Set : symmetry_x
SPC1 4 156 6 32 33 34 35 36
$ Nodal Forces of Load Set : point_load
FORCE 1 6 0 250. 0. -1. 0.

Solution Procedure
The problem is analyzed in MD Nastran using the SOL 400 routine which is an implicit nonlinear solution procedure.
In the PARAM entry LGDISP = 1 enables the nonlinear large displacement capability with updated element
coordinates and follower forces effect. Control parameters for the nonlinear solution scheme are described through the
NLSTEP entry. The entries in GENERAL option are common to all types of analysis. The first three entries denote
maximum, minimum number of iterations allowed for each increment and maximum number of bisections in the
current increment.
PARAM LGDISP 1
NLSTEP 1 1.00
GENERAL 25 1 10
ARCLN CRIS 0.05 0.01 1.0001 5 1000
MECH PUV 0.001 0.001 0.00 PFNT 3
ARCLN keyword activates the arc-length load stepping strategy for the analysis. The type of arc-length scheme, CRIS
which represents Crisfield’s technique, is specified in the first field. The second field indicates the initial time step
expressed as a fraction of the total analysis load step time. Minimum and maximum allowable ratios of arc-lengths
 CHAPTER 59 1159
Shallow Cylindrical Shell Snap-through

between successive increments are specified in the next two fields. The sixth entry indicates the desired number of
iterations for convergence and the last field implies the maximum number of increments in the current load case.
The parameters for a mechanical analysis are described through MECH keyword. The first field flags to select the
convergence criteria. The next two fields indicate the tolerance error for displacement and load. The method for
updating the stiffness matrix is specified in the fifth field. The flag used in the last entry chooses the type of variables
to be considered for error check.
In this analysis, an initial load increment of 0.01, which is 1% of the total load applied, is used. A convergence check
on relative displacement and residual forces is selected and the corresponding tolerance values are 0.001 and 0.001.
Nodal rotations and moments are not included in the convergence check. Pure full Newton-Raphson method is
employed for updating the stiffness matrix which recalculates the tangent stiffness matrix for every iteration.
This problem can be solved alternately by adopting the automatic adaptive load stepping scheme with damping option.
This procedure is initiated with the ADAPT keyword which replaces the ARCLN option in the NLSTEP entry. Initial time
step, minimum and maximum time steps and the desired number of iterations are sequentially specified for the ADAPT
option. In the next line of input, the flag to activate damping (IDAMP) and the damping ratio (DAMP) are specified.
ADAPT 0.01 1E-5 0.5 5
4 2E-4

IDAMP = 4 employs the time step control method using damping. A damping ratio of 2x10-4 is used in this problem.

Results and Discussion

Force-deflection response of the structure modeled with thin shell elements is presented in Figure 59-3. The solid blue
line represents the behavior of the node at which the load is applied, and the red line indicates the response of the
midpoint of the free edge. From the response of the midpoint node, it is observed that the structure follows a stable
nonlinear path in the beginning phase of the analysis. As the applied load reaches a value of 596 N, the stiffness matrix
approaches singularity indicating an unstable equilibrium. At this limit point, the structure begins to snap-through and
the load-deflection curve exhibits a downward trend. It is to be noted that the displacement of the node under
observation is still in the downward direction. As the midpoint reaches a position corresponding to a displacement of
about 16.7 mm, it begins to move upwards indicating a snap-back phenomenon. The snap-back behavior lasts till the
displacement of the point attains 14.6 mm at which the motion of the midpoint reverses direction again. Snap-through
response continues until the load reaches -366 N after which the load-deflection curve follows a stable equilibrium
path.
Figure 59-4 shows a comparison of the solutions obtained with SOL 400 using thin and thick shell elements to the
results of Crisfield (1981). The Nastran results are in reasonable agreement with Crisfield’s solution which is
represented by dot markers in Figure 59-4. The variation in results is due to the difference in the finite element
approximation used by Crisfield (1981) and Nastran. Crisfield (1981) employed rectangular elements with quadratic
variation for in-plane displacements and a restricted quartic non-conforming shape functions for the out-of-plane
displacements. This example demonstrates that the arc-length scheme of MD Nastran captures the snap-through
behavior of shell structures with good accuracy.
Figure 59-5 presents the response of the shallow shell structure solved utilizing the adaptive time stepping procedure
with damping. The figure shows a comparison of load-deflection curves for thick and thin shell models and also
1160 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 59

between the adaptive and arc-length solution schemes. In the first phase of the curve when the structure is in stable
equilibrium, the two approaches yield matching results which indicates that the adaptive times stepping method
introduces negligible damping into the system. But, in the vicinity of the limit point, where the structure approaches
an unstable configuration, equilibrium is attained numerically by adding artificial damping. Beyond this point, while
the true equilibrium path follows a downward trend in the snap through and snap-back regimes, the adaptive time
stepping procedure follows a horizontal path as a solution is attempted at a constant load value of 608N (thin shell
model). The strain energy that needs to be relieved by the structure to remain in equilibrium is dissipated by damping.
The constant load response continues until the structure reaches the next undamped stable configuration corresponding
to this load value, after which the path followed by the curve is similar to the arc-length method. It is to be noted that
unlike the arc-length method this approach is not capable of predicting the stable configurations at load levels below
the current load step. But, the damping option is very useful when analyzing complicated structures posing
convergence problems due to local instabilities. In such cases, it must be ensured that energy dissipated by damping
does not exceed a small proportion of internal energy (e.g., 2%) so that the error introduced in the load-deflection
response is within an acceptable limit.

Figure 59-3 Load-Deflection Response of the Shallow Shell Structure

 CHAPTER 59 1161
Shallow Cylindrical Shell Snap-through

Figure 59-4 Comparison of Snap-through Load-deflection Responses

Figure 59-5 Response of the Structure with Automatic Adaptive Load Stepping Scheme and Damping
1162 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 59

Input File(s)

Files Description
nug_59a.dat Snap-through analysis using arc-length method
The model is analyzed using the adaptive load stepping method with
nug_59b.dat
artificial damping

Video
Click on the image or caption below to view a streaming video of this problem; it lasts approximately 14 minutes and
explains how the steps are performed.

Figure 59-6 Video of the Above Steps

References
Crisfield, M. A., A fast incremental/iterative solution procedure that handles “snap-through”, Computers & Structures,
1981, 13, 55-62