More Information on mass conservation in linear elasticity

[beachblu]

Hi

Would anyone be able to help me with information on how conservation of mass is treated in standard FEA codes (Abaqus etc.), in small displacement linear thermo-elasticity. For example, with a temperature change, the volume would change (but not the mass hopefully) and so the density changes slightly. I know that most codes use a Lagrangian formulation for large displacements but what about small displacements where these effects although small are important for certain applications.

thank you

 

[kan123]

The inertial properties (mass) are assigned to the nodes at the beginning of the solution, then retained throughout. Even if the part goes through significant expansion or contraction, the distribution of the mass should not change significantly as long as the element mesh is not too coarse.

 

[EdR]

For small strain, small displacement codes the volume change is assumed small (epsx+epsy+epsz) and no code does anything about volume change under these assumptions....

I don't know what application would consider these changes important without going to a large strain/large displacement assumption.....

Ed.R.