Large deformation of elastic structures. Here we look at a cantilever beam, bending under a vertical end load.
Physics and modelling
The main considerations in modelling large deformations of solid structures are: surface area changes between the initial and final deformation
state; and, ensuring that under pure rotation, no strain is accumulated. In a transient simulation, we can move the mesh each time step which accounts for
area change and tracks the rotations within the structure. We use a velocity-based formulation in which the internal stress is accumulated each time step. At
steady-state, the solution reduces to the deformed shape containing internal stresses, which better reflects the physics than a solution of deflections from an initial
reference state.
OpenFOAM solver
velocityStressFoam
Images and animations
The animation below shows the mesh as it deforms under the applied load.
