A triangular inverse element coupling mixed interpolation of tensorial components technique for shape sensing of plate structure

• Published in: Measurement : journal of the International Measurement Confederation Vol. 202; p. 111688
• Main Authors: Niu, Shengtao, Guo, Yanhao, Bao, Hong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2022
• Subjects: Cubic bubble function; Inverse finite element method; Least-squares variational function; Mixed interpolation of tensorial components; Shear locking; Mixed interpolation of tensorial components; Least-squares variational function; Shear locking; Cubic bubble function; Inverse finite element method
• ISSN: 0263-2241; 1873-412X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.measurement.2022.111688

•A novel iMITC3+ method is developed for the reconstruction of the deformation of plate structures.•The iMITC3+ element can alleviate the shear locking problem for the reconstructing the displacement field of plate structures under bending-dominated.•The high accuracy of iMITC3+ is demonstrated by comparing the existing iMIN3 and iQS4 element, and the capability is also verified by thin plate model under multiple loading cases.•The iMITC3+ method is suitable for shape sensing of geometrically arbitrarily plate structures. This novel inverse element, named as iMITC3+, is proposed by coupling the inverse finite element method (iFEM) and mixed interpolation of tensorial components (MITC) technology for real-time reconstructing the structural deformation based on discrete strain measurement. This reconstructed method is established through combining the kinematics of enhanced 3-node triangular MITC element and least-squares variational function. Furthermore, the approach containing the cubic bubble function inside the element is less sensitive to deformation under bending-dominated and thus alleviates the shear locking for shape sensing of thin plate structure. In addition, the method is suitable for geometrically arbitrarily plate structures, due to that the rotation degree of freedom of the element is represented by the nodal director vector. The high accuracy and practicability of iMITC3+ has been verified by numerical and experimental results through analyses of plate model subjected to different loading.