Solid Mechanics

Faculty of Engineering, LTH

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I debug in the Matlab environment ?
One option is to type "keyboard" at the place in the code where you want to debug. To continue the debugging type "dbcont" and to quit type "dbquit".

2. Some of my elements show very strange results. Any ideas of what is wrong ?
Check the orientation of the elements

3. I'm solving a heat conduction problem and on one of the boundaries we have convection. How can I handle this ?
Solve the problems in Chapter 10.

4. I'm solving a heat conduction problem and on one of the boundaries we have convection. I have solved the problems in chapter 10. The code is not working. Please help me !
Check if the program works for insulated boundaries, i.e. set the convection coefficient to zero and prescribe the temperature at some parts of the boundary.

5. The entries in the stiffness matrix seems to be unrealistically large. What is wrong ?
Check that the elements are assembled once, i.e. Edof(elnr,:) should be the arguments to the assem function. Check the dimensions of the constitutive parameters.

6. How can I plot the temperature field ?
Use the extract command to get the nodal temperatures in each element, i.e ed = extract(edof,a).  Then use the matlab command 'fill' for plotting, i.e. fill(ex',ey',ed'). Check page 201 in the CALFEM manual for more details.

7. When solving Ka=f Matlab warns me for the stiffness matrix being close to singular. What is wrong ?
Check your boundary conditions.

8. When solving Ka=f Matlab warns me for the stiffness matrix being close to singular. I have checked my boundary conditions MANY times.
Spy on the stiffness matrix i.e. type spy(K) at the Matlab prompt. Sometimes errors can be identified from this command. Is for example K symmetric ?

9. When calculating the stresses in a thermo-elastic boundary value problem the stresses seems to be incorrect. Any ideas of what is wrong ?
Remember that the stresses are related to the elastic strains via Hooke's law. When calculating the stresses it is therefore important that you subtract the thermal strains from the total strains when calculating the stresses.

10. I want to know what happens in a CALFEM routine. How can I do that ?
Open the m-file or enter "type filename" at the matlab prompt.

11. When solving a heat conduction problem, I have prescribed temperatures in some nodes. The solve routine asks for the force vector. What should I enter in the force vectorat the positions where the temperature is know ?
It doesn't matter. Since the temperature is known CALFEM will ignore the force value you enter in that node. 

12. I'm solving a thermo-elastic problem. How can I include the temperature into the mechanical problem ?
Use the Hooke's law and interpret the temperature expansion as a load term.If you are using triangular elements you can use to CALFEM command plantf.m to to include the temperature load.

13. I'm trying to do solve the transient temperature problem, how do I calculate the "C-matrix"?
Use the function plantml that is provided on the website.

14. I  get an unrealistic stress distribution in my structure. I use the CALFEM command plants for obtaining the stresses. What is wrong?
Check that plants is called using the following format: es = plants(ex(elnr,:),ey(elnr,:),ep,D,ed(elnr,:)). Here 'es' is the stress for element 'elnr'.

15. My displacements seems to be OK, but my stresses are very strange.
We strongly recommend that you use all element routines element-wise. CALFEM accepts a function call [es,et]=plants(Ex,Ey,ep,D,Ed) where Ex, Ey, etc contains all element coordinates. This syntax SHOULD be avoided and we strongly recommend that you use the syntax [es,et]=plants(ex,ey,ep,D,Ed) where ex, ey, etc. refers to one element only.

16. My stress distribution looks strange, what is wrong ?
A good idea is to start to plot the displacements using a large magnification factor. Sometimes this  reveals what is wrong. The deformed mesh can be plotted using the CALFEM eldisp2 command.

17. I have created a mesh in  Matlab's pdetool. How do this fit with CALFEM?

Export the mesh and you will have the variables p e t in the Matlab environment.The following lines will translate the mesh into the CALFEM format

coord=p' ;

18. I have created a mesh in  Matlab's pdetool. How can I find the boundaries ?

The variable 'e' have all the information you need. One of the column in the variable e determines which boundary that segment is associated with.

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