9.

MEMBRANE ELEMENT WITH NORMAL

ROTATIONS
Rotations Must Be Compatible Between Beam,
Membrane and Shell Elements

9.1 INTRODUCTION

{ XE "Membrane Element" }The complex nature of most buildings and

other civil engineering structures requires that frame, plate bending and
membrane elements exist in the same computer model. The three-
dimensional beam element normally has six degrees-of-freedom per
nodethree displacements and three rotations per node. The plate bending
element, presented in the previous chapter, has two rotations in the plane
of the element and one displacement normal to the element at each node.
The standard plane stress element, used to model the membrane behavior
in shell elements, has only two in-plane displacements at each node and
cannot carry moments applied normal to the plane of the element.

{ XE "Normal Rotations" }A frame element embedded normal to a shear

wall or slab is very common in the modeling of buildings and many other
types of structural systems. It is possible to use a constraint to transfer the
frame element moment to a force-couple applied in the plane of the
element. However, for shells connected to edge beams and many other
common types of structural systems, there is a need for a membrane
element that has a normal rotation as a basic DOF at each node.
9-2 STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

{ XE "Quadrilateral Element" }The search for a membrane element with normal

rotations was a fruitless endeavor for the first 30 years of the development of
finite element technology. Within the last 15 years, however, a practical
quadrilateral element has evolved. Rather than refer to the many research papers
(summarized in reference [1]) that led to the development of the element currently
used in the general structural analysis program SAP2000, the fundamental
equations will be developed in this chapter. In addition, numerical examples will
be presented to illustrate the accuracy of the element.

9.2 BASIC ASSUMPTIONS

The development of the membrane element is very similar to the plate

bending element presented in the previous chapter. The quadrilateral
element is shown in Figure 9.1.

3 3

4 7
4 7
6 6
8
8

2 5 2
5
(b)
(a) 1
1

s
3 3
r
4 4

ABSOLUTE ROTATIONS RELATIVE ROTATIONS

2 2

(d) (c)
1 1

Figure 9.1 Quadrilateral Membrane Element with Normal Rotations

Development of the element can be divided into the following four steps:
1. The starting point is the nine-node quadrilateral element, 16 DOF,
shown in Figure 9.1a.
MEMBRANE ELEMENT 9-3

2. The next step is to rotate the mid-side relative displacements to be

normal and tangential to each side and to set the relative tangential
displacement to zero, reducing the element to the 12 DOF shown in
Figure 9.1b.
3. The third step is to introduce parabolic normal displacement
constraints to eliminate the four mid-side normal displacements and to
introduce four relative normal rotations at the nodes shown in Figure
9.1c.
4. The final step is to convert the relative normal rotations to absolute
values and to modify the shape functions to pass the patch test. This
results in the 12 by 12 element stiffness with respect to the 12 DOF
shown in Figure 9.1d.

9.3 DISPLACEMENT APPROXIMATION

The basic assumption is that in-plane x and y displacements are defined by

the following equations:
4 8
u x (r , s) = ∑
i =1
N i (r , s) u xi + ∑ N (r , s) ∆u
i=5
i xi

4 8 (9.1)
u y (r , s) = ∑
i =1
N i (r , s) u yi + ∑
i=5
N i (r , s) ∆u yi

The eight shape functions are given by:

N 1 = (1 − r )(1 − s) / 4 N 2 = (1 + r )(1 − s) / 4
N 3 = (1 + r )(1 + s) / 4 N 4 = (1 − r )(1 + s) / 4
N 5 = (1 − r 2 )(1 − s) / 2 N 6 = (1 + r )(1 − s 2 ) / 2 (9.2)
2 2
N 7 = (1 − r )(1 + s) / 2 N 8 = (1 − r )(1 − s ) / 2
The first four shape functions are the natural bilinear shape functions for a four-
node quadrilateral and are not zero at nodes 5 to 8. The last four shape functions
for the mid-side nodes and center node are an addition to the bilinear functions
and are referred to as hierarchical functions.

9.4 INTRODUCTION OF NODE ROTATION

A typical element side ij is shown in Figure 9.2.
9-4 STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

∆uy
L ij ∆θ j i = 1, 2 , 3 , 4
∆ux
∆ u ij j = 2 , 3 , 4 ,1
α ij m = 5 , 6 , 7 ,8
∆θi
i
L ij = ( x j − xi ) 2 + ( y j − yi ) 2

Figure 9.2 Typical Side of Quadrilateral Element

If it is assumed that the relative normal displacement of the side is parabolic, the
following equation must be satisfied:
Lij
∆u ij = (∆θ j − ∆θ i ) (9.3)
8
Because the tangential mid-side displacement is zero, the global relative mid-side
displacements are given by:
Lij
∆u x = cos α ij ∆u ij = cos α ij (∆θ j − ∆θ i )
8
Lij (9.4)
∆u y = − sin α ij ∆u ij = − sin α ij (∆θ j − ∆θ i )
8
Equation (9.4) can be applied to all four sides and the global displacements,
Equation (9.1), can be written as:
4 8
u x (r , s) = ∑ N (r , s) u +∑ M
i =1
i xi
i=5
xi (r , s) ∆θ i

4 8 (9.5)
u y (r , s) = ∑
i =1
N i (r , s) u yi + ∑
i=5
M yi (r , s) ∆θ i

Therefore, the system has been reduced to 12 DOF.

MEMBRANE ELEMENT 9-5

9.5 STRAIN-DISPLACEMENT EQUATIONS

{ XE "Strain Displacement Equations:2D Plane Elements" }The strain-

displacement equations can now be constructed from the following
fundamental equations:
∂u x ∂u y ∂u x ∂u y
εx = , εy = and γ xy = + (9.6)
∂x ∂y ∂y ∂x

Alternatively, the 3 by 12 strain-displacement equations written in sub

matrix form are the following:
εx 
  u 
 ε y  = [B11 B12 ]   (9.7)
γ xy  ∆θ 
 
{ XE "Correction Matrix" }In order that the element satisfies the constant stress
patch test, the following modification to the 3 by 4 B12 matrix must be made:
1
B12 = B12 −
A∫B12 dA (9.8)

The development of this equation is presented in the chapter on

incompatible elements, Equation (6.4).

9.6 STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIP

{ XE "Stress-Strain Relationship" }The stress-strain relationship for orthotropic
plane stress materials can be written as:
σ x   D 11 D 12 D 13   ε x 
    
σ y  = D 21 D 22 D 23   ε y  (9.9)
τ xy  D 31 D 32 D 33  γ xy 
     
The only restriction on the stress-strain matrix is that it must be symmetric and
positive definite.

9.7 TRANSFORM RELATIVE TO ABSOLUTE ROTATIONS

The element 12 by 12 stiffness matrix for a quadrilateral element with

normal rotations is obtained using four-point numerical integration. Or:
9-6 STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

∫B
T
K= DB dV (9.10)
{ XE "Relative Rotations" }The stiffness matrix for the membrane
element, as calculated from Equation (9.9), has four unknown relative
rotations at the nodes. An examination of the properties of the stiffness
matrix indicates that it has a zero energy mode in addition to the three
rigid body modes. This spurious deformation mode, relative to the rigid-
body rotation of the element, is shown in Figure 9.3.

Figure 9.3 Zero Energy Displacement Mode

{ XE "Zero Energy Mode" }The zero energy displacement mode has equal
rotations at all nodes and zero mid-side displacements. To eliminate this
mode, it is only necessary to add a rank one matrix to the element stiffness
matrix that has stiffness associated with the mode. From the elasticity
definition of rotation, the absolute rotation at the center of the element, or
an estimation of the rigid-body rotation of the element, can be calculated
from:
1  ∂u x ∂u y 
θ0 =  −  = b 0u (9.11)
2  ∂y ∂x 
{ XE "Relative Rotations" }where b 0 is a 1 by 12 matrix. The difference between
the absolute rotation and the average relative rotation at the center of the element
is:
4
d = θ0 − ∑ N (0,0) ∆θ
i =1
i i = b0 u (9.12)
MEMBRANE ELEMENT 9-7

A stiffness k 0 (or a penalty term) can now be assigned to this deformation to

create, using one point integration, the following rank one stiffness matrix:
∫
K 0 = b 0T k 0 b dV = k 0 Vol b 0T b 0
0 (9.13)
Experience with the solution of a large number of problems indicates that
the following value for rotational stiffness is effective:
k 0 = 0.025 D 33 (9.14)
where D 33 is the shear modulus for isotropic materials. When this rank one
matrix is added to the 12 by 12 stiffness matrix, the zero energy mode is removed
and the node rotation is converted to an absolute rotation.

9.8 TRIANGULAR MEMBRANE ELEMENT

{ XE "Triangular Elements" }The same approximations used to develop the
quadrilateral element are applied to the triangular element with three mid-side
nodes. The resulting stiffness matrix is 9 by 9. Approximately 90 percent of the
computer program for the quadrilateral element is the same as for the triangular
element. Only different shape functions are used and the constraint associated
with the fourth side is skipped. However, the triangle is significantly more stiff
than the quadrilateral. In fact, the accuracy of the membrane behavior of the
triangle with the drilling degrees of freedom is nearly the same as the constant
strain triangle.

9.9 NUMERICAL EXAMPLE

{ XE "Distorted Elements" }The beam shown in Figure 9.4 is modeled

with two membrane elements with drilling degrees-of-freedom.

a E=1,500 υ = 0.25

d=2 M
V

a
L=5 L=5

Figure 9.4 Beam Modeled with Distorted Elements

9-8 STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

Results for both displacements and stresses are summarized in Table 9.1.

Table 9.1. Results of Analysis of Cantilever Beam

TIP MOMENT LOADING TIP SHEAR LOADING

Mesh
Distortion Normalized
Normalized Normalized Normalized
Factor Maximum
Tip Tip Maximum Stress
“a” Stress At
Displacement Displacement At Support
Support
Exact 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
0 1.000 1.000 0.958 0.750
1 0.502 0.675 0.510 0.601
2 0.280 0.627 0.303 0.557

{ XE "Shear Locking" }For rectangular elements subjected to end

moment, the exact results are obtained and “shear locking” does not exist.
For a tip shear loading, the displacements are in error by only 4 percent;
however, the bending stresses are in error by 25 percent. This behavior is
almost identical to the behavior of plane elements with incompatible
modes. As the element is distorted, the displacements and stresses
deteriorate. All results were obtained using four-point integration.

The end moment can be applied as two equal and opposite horizontal
forces at the end of the beam. Or, one half of the end moment can be
applied directly as two concentrated moments at the two end nodes. The
results for the two different methods of loading are almost identical.
Therefore, standard beam elements can be attached directly to the nodes of
the membrane elements with normal rotational DOF.

9.10 SUMMARY

The membrane plane stress element presented in this chapter can be used
to accurately model many complex structural systems where frame,
membrane and plate elements interconnect. The quadrilateral element
produces excellent results. However, the performance of the triangular
membrane element is very poor.
MEMBRANE ELEMENT 9-9

9.11 REFERENCES
1. { XE "Ibrahimbegovic, Adnan" }Ibrahimbegovic, Adnan, R. Taylor,
and E. Wilson. 1990. "A Robust Membrane Quadrilateral Element
with Drilling Degrees of Freedom," Int. J. of Num. Meth.