INTRODUCTION TO NONLINEAR

PROBLEMS
 Linear Problem
K D R K D R
K K D K K D
R R D R R D
Solution Solution
D K R D K (D ) R
1 1

Stiffness and Forces Stiffness and Forces

are not functions of are functions of
displacements. displacements.
Nonlinear problems can cost as much as 10 to 100 times as much to solve as
corresponding linear problems!
We often try to approximate nonlinear solutions by linear solutions
 Sources of Nonlinearity
o Geometric nonlinearity
Large deflections
Large rotations

o Material nonlinearity:
time-independent behaviour such as plasticity
time-dependent behaviour such as creep
viscoelastic/viscoplastic behaviour where both plasticity and creep
effects occur simultaneously
Nonlinear elasticity

o Contact or boundary nonlinearity

Opening/closing of gaps, sliding surfaces, follower forces,
crack propagation.
Contact problems, the displacement is highly dependant on the
relationship between two contact surfaces (normal force and
friction present).
It is important to note that the bodies in contact could be in a
state of linear elastic stress; The nonlinearities all come from the
contact definition.
 Physical Manifestations

o Gross changes in geometry.

o Cracking, necking, thinning.
o Distortions in open section beams, web
crippling, buckling, local yielding.
o Stresses in excess of the elastic limit of a
material.
Permanent deformations upon load removal.
o Presence of shear bands (strain localization).
o Temperatures in excess of approximately 30%
of the melting temperature of a material
 Geometric nonlinearity

o Physical source: Change in geometry as the structure

deforms is taken into account in setting up the strain-
displacement and equilibrium equations.
o Applications: Slender structures in aerospace, civil and
mechanical engineering applications. Tensile structures
such as cables and inflatable membranes.
o Mathematical source: Strain-displacement equations is
nonlinear.

B d
Geometrical Nonlinearity -Follower force
 Material nonlinearity
o Physical source: Material behavior depends on
current deformation state and possibly past
history of the deformation.
o Applications: Structures undergoing nonlinear
elasticity, plasticity, viscoelasticity, creep, or
inelastic rate effects.
Stress s

Strain
 Force BC nonlinearity
o Physical source: Applied forces depend on
deformation.
o Applications: The most important engineering
application concerns pressure loads of fluids.
These include hydrostatic loads on submerged
or container structures; aerodynamic and
hydrodynamic loads caused by the motion of
aeroform and hydroform fluids (wind loads,
wave loads, drag forces).
o Mathematical source: The applied forces
(prescribed surface tractions and/or body
forces) depend on the displacements.
 Displacement BC nonlinearity

o Physical source: Displacement boundary conditions

depend on the deformation of the structure.
o Applications: The most important application is the
contact problem, i.e. contact-impact in dynamics, in
which no-inter-penetration conditions are enforced on
flexible bodies while the extent of the contact area is
unknown.
 Types of Nonlinearities

o All three types of nonlinearities can be

encountered in combination.

Rubber Boot Seal

An example of nonlinear
geometry (large strain and
large deformation),
nonlinear material
(rubber), and changing
status nonlinearities
(contact).
 Some Solution Methods

1. Direct Substitution
2. Direct Substitution with Relaxation
3. Newton-Raphson (N-R)
4. Modified Newton-Raphson
5. Incremental Methods
6. Quasi-Newton Methods (Inverse Broyden)
 Direct Substitution
Typical Nonlinear Problem 1 D-O-F

k0 kN u P
k u

P
kN f (u )
k k0 kN Given P find u.
Assume f(u) is a known function.
k0 constant
kN function of u P
Hardening (k = 0)
kN > 0
N

Slope k0

Softening
kN < 0
u
 Direct Substitution Method
1. Let load PA be applied to a
softening spring (kN<0)
1
2. Assume kN = 0 for the first u1 k P
0 A
iteration.

u 2 k0 kN
1
3. Compute first approximation
to displacement: u1 = PA/k0 1
PA
4. Use u1 to compute new
u 3 k0 kN
1
stiffness:
k = k0 +f(u1) 2
PA
5. Compute next approximation
to displacement: u2 = PA/k

ui 1 k0 kN i PA
6. Generate sequence of 1
approximations.
P P

PA a PA a b
P1 1 2
k0 k0 1
k0+kN1

u1 u u1 u2 u
P
P

PA a bc
PA a bc
2 3
1 2 3
1

u1 u2u3 u
u1 u2u3 uA u
 Example:
P= 0.006

k u Del u
0.2000000000 0.0300000000

k 0.2 u 0.1700000000
0.1647058824
0.0352941176 15.00000000%
0.0364285714 3.11418685%
0.1635714286 0.0366812227 0.68877551%

P 0.006 0.1633187773
0.1632620321
0.0367379679
0.0367507370
0.15445930%
0.03474506%

u1
0.1632492630 0.0367536116 0.00782121%
0.1632463884 0.0367542587 0.00176085%
0.1632457413 0.0367544045 0.00039645%
0.1632455955 0.0367544373 0.00008926%
0.1632455627 0.0367544447 0.00002010%
0.1632455553 0.0367544463 0.00000452%
0.1632455537 0.0367544467 0.00000102%
0.1632455533 0.0367544468 0.00000023%
P=k u=0.163 x 0.0367
0.1632455532 0.0367544468 0.00000005%
=0.0059909672
 Nonlinear solution using linear solvers

o In a nonlinear analysis, the response cannot be predicted

directly with a set of linear equations.
o However, a nonlinear structure can be analyzed using an
iterative series of linear approximations, with corrections.
o Mechanical uses an iterative process called the Newton-
Raphson Method.
o Each iteration is known as an equilibrium iteration.

A full Newton-Raphson
iterative analysis for one
increment of load. (Four
iterations are shown.)
 Newton-Raphson Approach
Step 1
k0 kNA u A PA where kNA f (u A ) (known); u A is known
Step 2 - Load is increased from PA to PB
P f (u ) P
One Term Taylor Series:
PB a
dP
f (u A u 1) f (u A ) u 1
du A P1
1

PA
u1
u1 uB u
uA
 Newton-Raphson Approach
dP
f (u A u 1) f (u A ) u 1
du A
dP d d kN u
du du k0u kN u A k0 du
A
P
Tangent Stiffness
PB a
dP d kN u
kt k0 P1
du du
1

PA u1

kt - Tangent stiffness
uA u1 uB u
 Newton-Raphson Approach

Seek : P

u 1 such that : PB a

f u A u 1 PB P1
1

PA
u1
PB PA ktA u 1
ktA u 1 PB PA uA u1 uB u

PB P1 - Load imbalance or residual Forces

 Newton-Raphson Approach

o Repeat this process until the load imbalance

becomes smaller than a tolerance value

PB - Pi - Load imbalance kt i ui PB Pi
ui 1 ui ui
o The iteration process described
continues until convergence is
achieved (4 iterations in the figure).
 Procedure

1. Assume {u0}. {u0} is usually the

converged solution from the previous
time step. On the first time step, {u0} =
{0}.
2. Compute the updated tangent matrix
kt and the restoring load Pi from
configuration {ui}. kt i ui PB Pi
3. Calculate {ui} from Equation 15106 ui 1 ui ui
4. Add {ui} to {ui} in order to obtain the
next approximation {ui + 1}.
5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 until convergence
is obtained
 P

a
PB

P1 1

PA

uA u1 uB u
P

a b
PB
2
P1 1

PA
u1 u2

uA u1 uB u
 Newton Raphson

uA uB kt PA PB D EL u
0.0000000000 0.0300000000 0.200000 0.000000 0.0060 0.0300000000
0.0300000000 0.035 29 4117 6 0.17 0000 0.005 100 0.0060 0.005 29 4117 6
0.035 29 4117 6 0.0364285 7 14 0.1647 06 0.005 813 0.0060 0.00113445 38
0.0364285 7 14 0.0366812227 0.1635 7 1 0.005 9 5 9 0.0060 0.00025 265 13

k 0.2 u
P 0.006
ANSYS
 Example
Load - Deflection

0.020
0.018
0.015
0.013
0.010
P

0.008
0.005
0.003
0.000
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1

P
u

4 Iterations

u
u1 u2 un
 ANSYS -NR
Pb
o When convergence is Pi
achieved, the solution is
in equilibrium, within an
acceptable tolerance.

PB Pi TOLERANCE

o The maximum number

of allowed equilibrium
iterations (NEQIT) are
performed in order to
obtain convergence.
 Modified Newton-Raphson
Approach

Do not update kt every iteration!

k u P P
t old i B i

ui 1 ui ui

PB - PB - Load imbalance
 Comparison
o Modified N-R has less calculations per
iteration.
o Modified N-R has more iterations.
o The modified and initial-stiffness Newton-
Raphson procedures converge more slowly
than the full Newton-Raphson procedure.
P
P PB b
a
PB
a P1
P1 1 2
1
PA
PA
u1
u1 u1 uB u u2
u1 uB u
uA uA
 Nonlinear FEA Issues
o Three main issues arise whenever you do a nonlinear finite
element analysis:
Obtaining convergence
Balancing expense versus accuracy
Verification
o Convergence is not guaranteed in all cases!
o Will converge only if the starting configuration is inside the
radius of convergence.

From Ansys Manual

 How Loads are managed
o Sudden changes to a structure will cause convergence difficulties.
o Load steps differentiate changes in general loading.
o Substeps apply the loads in an incremental fashion
Because of the complex
response, it may be necessary
to apply the load incrementally.
For example, Fa1 may be near
Fa and Fb 50% of the Fa load.
are
loadsteps.
After the load for Fa1 is converged,
then the full Fa load is applied.
Fa has 2 substeps while Fb has 3
In this example, the substeps in this example
iterations between the quilibrium iterations are the
dotted lines indicate corrective solutions to obtain a
equilibrium iterations. converged substep
 Nonlinear FEA Issues
o Obtaining convergence is your biggest challenge.
o Solution must start within the radius of convergence.
o The radius of convergence is unknown!
If solution converges, the start was within the radius.
If solution fails to converge, the start was outside the radius.
o Trial-and-error is sometimes required.
o Experience and training reduce your trial-and-error
effort.
o Difficult problems might require many load increments,
and many iterations at each load increment, to reach
convergence.
o When many iterations are required, the overall solution
time increases.
 Nonlinear FEA Issues
o Verification
In a nonlinear analysis, as in any finite-element analysis, you
must verify your results.
Due to the increased complexity of nonlinear behavior,
nonlinear results are generally more difficult to verify.
Sensitivity studies (increasing mesh density, decreasing load
increment, varying other model parameters) become more
expensive.
 Remarks
o Hardening difficult to converge o Apply the load more gradually.
o Use an Adequate Mesh Density for If you apply the load all in one shot you may
experience convergence trouble. In ANSYS to
regions undergoing plastic apply the load gradually specify the number of
deformation, on contact surfaces etc substeps in the "Solution Controls" dialog box
o Apply the load in small enough or use the NSUBST command.
increments to ensure that your o By default 'Solution Control' is on which
analysis will closely follow the means that ANSYS will monitor how many
structure's load-response curve. iterations are required to converge at that
substep.
If convergence is difficult it will automatically
reduce the next "bite of load" it takes and add
more substeps.
If convergence is easy it will take bigger bites of
the load and use less substeps. If your analysis
P Hardening (k = 0) is not converging then the first thing to try is
N adding more substeps to apply the load more
kN > 0 slowly.

Slope k0

Softening
kN < 0
u
 From Ansys User Manual
o Balancing expense versus accuracy
All FEA involves a trade-off between expense (elapsed time,
disk and memory requirements) and accuracy.
More detail and a finer mesh generally lead to a more accurate
solution, but require more time and system resources.
Nonlinear analyses add an extra factor, the number of load
increments, which affects both accuracy and expense. More
increments =improve the accuracy, with increase the expense.
Other nonlinear parameters, such as contact stiffness affect
both accuracy and expense.
Use your own engineering judgment to determine how much
accuracy you need, how much expense you can afford.
 Performing Nonlinear Analysis -Ansys

o Typically, nonlinear analyses fail to converge for the

following reasons:
Too large a distortion
Elements contain nodes that have near zero pivots
Too large a plastic or creep strain increment
Low number of load steps
o The nonlinear diagnostics tool NLDIAG can help you
find problems in your model when an analysis will not
converge. (Main Menu>Solution>Diagnostics>Nonlinear Diagnostics )
Identify Regions of High Residual Forces.
 How to Identify Non-linear Behaviour
o The magnitude of the
displacements are greater than
the characteristic dimension of
the structure (plate thickness,
beam depth)
o The axial loads influences the
stiffness of the structure.
o Stresses that exceed that of the
limit of proportionality of the
material.
o Major changes in geometry
o Processes involves buckling,
crushing, wrinkling or plastic
flows.
o Temperatures exceeding the
melting temperature of the
material.
o Large strains, finite strains can
occur in hyperelastic materials.
o Boundary conditions change due
to the application of load.
o The direction of load application
changes with deformation
(follower forces such as
pressures).
Non-Linear Analysis Tips

z
x
Non-Linear x

Linear
o Use symmetry wherever
possible.

o Region your model to use

the nonlinear material
model only where
required