31.76 Numerische Mathematik
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Numerical simulation of physical phenomena, like electro-magnetics, structural and fluid mechanics is essential for the cost- and time-efficient development of mechanical products at high quality. It allows to investigate the behavior of a product or a system far before the first prototype of a product is manufactured.
This thesis addresses the simulation of contact mechanics. Mechanical contacts appear in nearly every product of mechanical engineering. Gearboxes, roller bearings, valves and pumps are only some examples. Simulating these systems not only for the maximal/minimal stresses and strains but for the stress-distribution in case of tribo-contacts is a challenging task from a numerical point of view.
Classical procedures like the Finite Element Method suffer from the nonsmooth representation of contact surfaces with discrete Lagrange elements. On the one hand, an error due to the approximate description of the surface is introduced. On the other hand it is difficult to attain a robust contact search because surface normals can not be described in a unique form at element edges.
This thesis introduces therefore a novel approach, the adaptive isogeometric contact formulation based on polynomial Splines over hierarchical T-meshes (PHT-Splines), for the approximate solution of the non-linear contact problem. It provides a more accurate, robust and efficient solution compared to conventional methods. During the development of this method the focus was laid on the solution of static contact problems without friction in 2D and 3D in which the structures undergo small deformations.
The mathematical description of the problem entails a system of partial differential equations and boundary conditions which model the linear elastic behaviour of continua. Additionally, it comprises side conditions, the Karush-Kuhn-Tuckerconditions, to prevent the contacting structures from non-physical penetration. The mathematical model must be transformed into its integral form for approximation of the solution. Employing a penalty method, contact constraints are incorporated by adding the resulting equations in weak form to the overall set of equations. For an efficient space discretization of the bulk and especially the contact boundary of the structures, the principle of Isogeometric Analysis (IGA) is applied. Isogeometric Finite Element Methods provide several advantages over conventional Finite Element discretization. Surface approximation with Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) allow a robust numerical solution of the contact problem with high accuracy in terms of an exact geometry description including the surface smoothness.
The numerical evaluation of the contact integral is challenging due to generally non-conforming meshes of the contacting structures. In this work the highly accurate Mortar Method is applied in the isogeometric setting for the evaluation of contact contributions. This leads to an algebraic system of equations that is linearized and solved in sequential steps. This procedure is known as the Newton Raphson Method. Based on numerical examples, the advantages of the isogeometric approach
with classical refinement strategies, like the p- and h-refinement, are shown and the influence of relevant algorithmic parameters on the approximate solution of the contact problem is verified. One drawback of the Spline approximations of stresses though is that they lack accuracy at the contact edge where the structures change their boundary from contact to no contact and where the solution features a kink. The approximation with smooth Spline functions yields numerical artefacts in the form of non-physical oscillations.
This property of the numerical solution is not only a drawback for the
simulation of e.g. tribological contacts, it also influences the convergence properties of iterative solution procedures negatively. Hence, the NURBS discretized geometries are transformed to Polynomial Splines over Hierarchical T-meshes (PHT-Splines), for the local refinement along contact edges to reduce the artefact of pressure oscillations. NURBS have a tensor product structure which does not allow to refine only certain parts of the geometrical domain while leaving other parts unchanged. Due to the Bézier Extraction, lying behind the transformation from NURBS to PHT-Splines, the connected mesh structure is broken up into separate elements. This allows an efficient local refinement along the contact edge.
Before single elements are refined in a hierarchical form with cross-insertion, existing basis functions must be modified or eliminated. This process of truncation assures local and global linear independence of the refined basis which is needed for a unique approximate solution. The contact boundary is a priori unknown. Local refinement along the contact edge, especially for 3D problems, is for this reason not straight forward. In this work the use of an a posteriori error estimation procedure, the Super Convergent Recovery Solution Based Error Estimation Scheme, together with the Dörfler Marking Method is suggested for the spatial search of the contact edge.
Numerical examples show that the developed method improves the quality of solutions along the contact edge significantly compared to NURBS based approximate solutions. Also, the error in maximum contact pressures, which correlates with the pressure artefacts, is minimized by the adaptive local refinement.
In a final step the practicability of the developed solution algorithm is verified by an industrial application: The highly loaded mechanical contact between roller and cam in the drive train of a high-pressure fuel pump is considered.
The p-Laplace equation is a nonlinear generalization of the well-known Laplace equation. It is often used as a model problem for special types of nonlinearities, and therefore it can be seen as a bridge between very general nonlinear equations and the linear Laplace equation, too. It appears in many problems for instance in the theory of non-Newtonian fluids and fluid dynamics or in rockfill dam problems, as well as in special problems of image restoration and image processing.
The aim of this thesis is to solve the p-Laplace equation for 1 < p < 2, as well as for 2 < p < 3 and to find strong solutions in the framework of Clifford analysis. The idea is to apply a hypercomplex integral operator and special function theoretic methods to transform the p-Laplace equation into a p-Dirac equation. We consider boundary value problems for the p-Laplace equation and transfer them to boundary value problems for a p-Dirac equation. These equations will be solved iteratively by applying Banach’s fixed-point principle. Applying operator-theoretical methods for the p-Dirac equation, the existence and uniqueness of solutions in certain Sobolev spaces will be proved.
In addition, using a finite difference approach on a uniform lattice in the plane, the fundamental solution of the Cauchy-Riemann operator and its adjoint based on the fundamental solution of the Laplacian will be calculated. Besides, we define gener- alized discrete Teodorescu transform operators, which are right-inverse to the discrete Cauchy-Riemann operator and its adjoint in the plane. Furthermore, a new formula for generalized discrete boundary operators (analogues of the Cauchy integral operator) will be considered. Based on these operators a new version of discrete Borel-Pompeiu formula is formulated and proved.
This is the basis for an operator calculus that will be applied to the numerical solution of the p-Dirac equation. Finally, numerical results will be presented showing advantages and problems of this approach.