extraction of negative eigenvalues

[mac_the_bike]

I have been using FreeCAD for about 2 weeks.

Suggestion:
My suggestion is that a negative value can be specified for the "Eigenmode Low Limit"

Justification:
I have been performing "Free-Free" Frequency Analyses and I have noticed that not all the Rigid Body Modes are displayed under the Calculix frequency output. (The Rigid Body Modes are those with eigenvalues close to 0.0.)
The modes that are not displayed are those with small negative eigenvalues, of the same magnitude as the other small values, output from Calculix within FreeCAD:

E I G E N V A L U E O U T P U T
MODE NO EIGENVALUE FREQUENCY
REAL PART IMAGINARY PART
(RAD/TIME) (CYCLES/TIME (RAD/TIME)
1 -0.9206131E-05 0.0000000E+00 0.0000000E+00 0.3034161E-02
2 0.4278982E-05 0.2068570E-02 0.3292231E-03 0.0000000E+00
3 0.3131142E-04 0.5595660E-02 0.8905770E-03 0.0000000E+00
4 0.4225360E-04 0.6500277E-02 0.1034551E-02 0.0000000E+00
5 0.4730425E-04 0.6877809E-02 0.1094637E-02 0.0000000E+00
6 0.6699469E-04 0.8185029E-02 0.1302688E-02 0.0000000E+00
7 0.1543087E+09 0.1242211E+05 0.1977040E+04 0.0000000E+00
8 0.2150798E+09 0.1466560E+05 0.2334103E+04 0.0000000E+00
9 0.3530977E+09 0.1879089E+05 0.2990664E+04 0.0000000E+00
10 0.3532363E+09 0.1879458E+05 0.2991251E+04 0.0000000E+00

This output was achieved by modifying the "FREQUENCY" input data in the *.inp file and rerunning.
The small negative value is due to roundoff error. The "jump" between the eigenvalues of the 6th and 7th modes is typical of a good model.
The analysis of "Free-Free" models is an important step in the validation of FEM models. If the model has less than 6 rigid body modes then it implies that there is some sort of constraint within the model.

mac

[Kunda1]

This post has been split off from a more ancient non-relevant post. New thread has been created. OP, please reference older posts instead of posting to them directly. Thanks

[bernd]

Even if it is a rounding error, does it makes sense from mechanical point of view to have negative eigenvalues? Is this considered to ve a bug in calculix or do I just not knew about this? How about other FEM solver? How do they handle this?

As far as I understand this negative eigenvalues will never be smaller than -1 ?!

How about the following:
allow values down to -1 and add a preference to FEM. If the user puts in 0 in FreeCAD on Calculix -1 is used which is set to True by default.

Why:
Most user including me (until today) will miss these negative eigenvalues and may be search for a problem in the model.

Bernd

ps: Welcome to FreeCAD FEM

[HarryvL]

In a single mass-spring system the natural frequency (= square root of frequency eigenvalue) is equal to sqrt(k/m), where k=spring stiffness and m=mass. A negative eigenvalue for this simplest of mechanical systems makes therefore no physical sense. A rigid body motion (k=0) corresponds to a natural frequency of 0.

[HarryvL]

In a multiple degree of freedom system (which a FEM system is) the number of natural frequencies and corresponding eigenvectors (= deformation modes) equals the number of degrees of freedom.

Now for the math: it is possible to re-state the mechanical problem in terms of eigen modes. If you do so you are left with a system of equations that is decoupled. This means that each eigenmode behaves like a single-mass spring system, with fictitious mass (m_i) and spring stiffness (k_i) corrrsonding to the equation sqrt(k_i/m_i) = omega_i, where omege_i is the natural frequency of vibration mode i.

What does this mean? Well that every natural frequency represents a physical singe mass-spring system corresponding to an eigenmode.

So in conclusion, natural frequencies for a multiple degree of freedom system (which a FEA system is) cannot be negative. In a rigid body motion you can at best only have 6 zero natural frequencies (corresponding to the 6 rigid body eigen modes. The rest should all be positive.

EDIT: instability may give rise to negative eigenvalues and (therefore) imaginary natural frequencies. This corresponds to exponential (rather than oscillatory) motion. See: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 30#p319635

[HarryvL]

NOTE: the numbers you see in the EIGENVALUE OUTPUT are the real and imaginary parts of a complex number. They are used to represent phase shifts due to damping. The corresponding physical natural frequency is obtained by calculating omega = sqrt (real^2 + imaginary^2). So again a positive number.

EDIT: this is not correct. see: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 30#p319635

[HarryvL]

... you can at best only have 6 zero natural frequencies

There can be more than 6 if there are multiple disconnected bodies or ones that are partly attached (eg pivot, hinge or slide along shared contacts).

[HarryvL]

A closer look at the output table shows that the first 6 natural frequencies are between 0.002 and 0.008 Hz. The next natural frequency (number 7) is 12422 Hz and the rest are even higher. So within the accuracy of the analysis the first 6 natural frequencies are indeed zero.

[UR_]

Just tried a frequency analysis by modifying cantilever3D example from start page.

Got mode 1 to 15.

If I select result object e.g. "CalculiX_frequency_mode_1_results", I see in properties:

Screenshot 001.png (2.01 KiB) Viewed 383 times

But same values for all modes

Where is the beaf?

[bernd]

I only did code formating on the dat file reader ... But it has been working some time ago ...

For reference ...
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/comm ... Results.py
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/comm ... Results.py
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/comm ... Results.py
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/comm ... tReader.py

the reader code never changed over the years ... initial commit from 3.11.2015 https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/blob ... py#L39-L63 vs uptodate master ... https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/blob ... y#L78-L105