Patent ID: 8050897

Claim:
A method of simulating large deformation and rotation of a structure in a finite element analysis used for assisting users to improve structural design comprising: defining a finite element analysis model of the structure, the finite element model contains at least one solid finite element configured for simulating large deformation and rotation of the structure, wherein the solid finite element comprises a plurality of corner nodes and a plurality of external edges, each of the external edges is located between a pair of the corner nodes adjacent to each other, and each of the pair of the adjacent corner nodes includes a deformation having three translational and three rotational components, said respective deformation of the pair of the adjacent corner nodes is so configured that mid-edge translational deformation of said each of the external edges is implicitly derived therefrom; wherein said three deformations at mid-edge of said each of the external edges is calculated as set forth in Equation as follows: u k = 1 2 ⁢ ( u i + u j ) + y j - y i 8 ⁢ ( tan ⁢ ⁢ θ zj - tan ⁢ ⁢ θ zi ) + z j - z i 8 ⁢ ( tan ⁢ ⁢ θ yi - tan ⁢ ⁢ θ yj ) - ( y k - y i + y j 2 ) ⁢ θ zo + ( z k - z i + z j 2 ) ⁢ θ yo ⁢ ⁢ v k = 1 2 ⁢ ( v i + v j ) + z j - z i 8 ⁢ ( tan ⁢ ⁢ θ xj - tan ⁢ ⁢ θ xi ) + x j - x i 8 ⁢ ( tan ⁢ ⁢ θ zi - tan ⁢ ⁢ θ zj ) - ( z k - z i + z j 2 ) ⁢ θ xo + ( x k - x i + x j 2 ) ⁢ θ zo ⁢ ⁢ w k = 1 2 ⁢ ( w i + w j ) + x j - x i 8 ⁢ ( tan ⁢ ⁢ θ yj - tan ⁢ ⁢ θ yi ) + y j - y i 8 ⁢ ( tan ⁢ ⁢ θ xi - tan ⁢ ⁢ θ xj ) - ( x k - x i + x j 2 ) ⁢ θ yo + ( y k - y i + y j 2 ) ⁢ θ xo Equation where: u k , v k and w k are three components of the mid-edge translation deformation of said each of the external edge, respectively; u i , v i , w i , θ xi , θ yi and θ zi are the three translation and three rotational components of the deformation of a first node of the pair of nodes, respectively; u j , v j , w j , θ xj , θ yj and θ zj are the three translation and three rotational components of the deformation of a second node of the pair of nodes, respectively; x i , y i and z i are coordinates of the first node, and x j , y j and z j are coordinates of the second node in a global coordinate system, respectively; and θ xo , θ yo and θ zo are three respective components of the rigid-body rotation of said each of the at least one solid finite element; performing the finite element analysis using said finite element analysis model in a computer having a finite element analysis application module installed thereon, wherein the finite element analysis application module is configured to facilitate computation of the large deformation and rotation of the structure for the finite element model; and adjusting structural design such that an improvement is achieved in accordance with the finite element analysis's result, wherein the result is configured to be visualized on a display monitor coupled to the computer.