Fourier analysis of membrane locking and unlocking

Abstract: Membrane locking in finite element approximations of thin beams and shells has remained an unresolved topic despite four decades of research. In this article, we utilize Fourier analysis of the complete spectrum of natural vibrations and propose a criterion to identify and evaluate the severity of membrane locking. To demonstrate our approach, we utilize standard and mixed Galerkin formulations applied to a circular Euler-Bernoulli ring discretized using uniform, periodic B-splines. By analytically computing the discrete Fourier operators, we obtain an exact representation of the normalized error across the entire spectrum of eigenvalues. Our investigation addresses key questions related to membrane locking, including mode susceptibility, the influence of polynomial order, and the impact of shell/beam thickness and radius of curvature. Furthermore, we compare the effectiveness of mixed and standard Galerkin methods in mitigating locking. By providing insights into the parameters affecting locking and introducing a criterion to evaluate its severity, this research contributes to the development of improved numerical methods for thin beams and shells.