Search

In this paper we present a mixed stabilized finite element formulation that does not lock and also does not exhibit unphysical oscillations near the incompressible limit. The new mixed formulation is based on a multiscale variational principle and is presented in two different forms. In the first form the displacement field is decomposed into two scales, coarse-scale and fine-scale, and the fine-scale variables are eliminated at the element level by the static condensation technique. The second form is obtained by simplifying the first form, and eliminating the fine-scale variables analytically yet retaining their effect that results with additional (stabilization) terms. We also derive, in a consistent manner, an expression for the stabilization parameter. This derivation also proves the equivalence between the classical mixed formulation with bubbles and the Galerkin least-squares type formulations for the equations of linear elasticity. We also compare the performance of this new mixed stabilized formulation with other popular finite element formulations by performing numerical simulations on three well known test problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the efficiency of multibody system (MBS) dynamic simulation codes that rely on different implementations of linear algebra operations. The dynamics of an N-loop four-bar mechanism has been solved with an index-3 augmented Lagrangian formulation combined with the trapezoidal rule as numerical integrator. Different implementations for this method, both dense and sparse, have been developed, using a number of linear algebra software libraries (including sparse linear equation solvers) and optimized sparse matrix computation strategies. Numerical experiments have been performed in order to measure their performance, as a function of problem size and matrix filling. Results show that optimal implementations can increase the simulation efficiency in a factor of 2–3, compared with our starting classical implementations, and in some topics they disagree with widespread beliefs in MBS dynamics. Finally, advices are provided to select the implementation which delivers the best performance for a certain MBS dynamic simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the simultaneous identification of the Poisson ratio, the shear modulus and a circular cavity embedded in an isotropic linear elastic material from boundary measurements is investigated. The numerical method proposed is based on the least-squares minimisation of the errors between the measured and the calculated tractions on the outer boundary using the boundary element method (BEM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a numerical approach to the optimization of effective properties of periodic perforations in an infinite body, in the frameworks of heat conduction and of linear elasticity. We implement a special finite element mesh in order to deal with the periodic nature of the problem. We compute the gradient of the functional to be minimized. We describe the process of mesh deformation and mesh regeneration. We give several numerical examples, some of them having practical relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution the effective material behaviour of thin structures like membranes and plates consisting of heterogeneities is investigated. The diameter of typical inclusions can be in the order of magnitude of the thickness of the membrane or plate. Thus, the prerequisite for a standard homogenization procedure using representative volume elements is not fulfilled anymore, since the required size of an RVE would be larger than the thickness of the structure itself. Additionally the assumption of uniformity of the boundary conditions on the RVE would be violated especially for plates since in general the predominant deformation of such structures is bending. However, it can be shown that the effective behaviour of such heterogeneous thin structures subjected to finite deformations is still in good agreement to the results obtained for homogenized materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple deformation field associated with an exact torsion-like solution of the equilibrium equations of linear elasticity is shown to provide a good approximation of the deformation field in interior elements of a mesh that models pure torsion of a right cylindrical bar with rectangular cross-section. Using this solution, modified torsion coefficients are proposed for a 3-D brick Cosserat point element (CPE) which are shown to improve convergence properties for solutions of pure torsion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A finite element method for linear elastic fracture mechanics using enriched quadratic interpolations is presented. The quadratic finite elements are enriched with the asymptotic near tip displacement solutions and the Heaviside function so that the finite element approximation is capable of resolving the singular stress field at the crack tip as well as the jump in the displacement field across the crack face without any significant mesh refinement. The geometry of the crack is represented by a level set function which is interpolated on the same quadratic finite element discretization. Due to the higher-order approximation for the crack description we are able to represent a crack with curvature. The method is verified on several examples and comparisons are made to similar formulations using linear interpolants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]