Contribution à l'automatisation des analyses par éléments-finis multidimensionnelles.

When conducting a finite element analysis one way to reduce the total number of degrees of freedom is to use elements of reduced dimension such as beam and shell elements. Because of geometric complexities some models must be meshed using volume elements. If however some parts of these models fit the description of shells then a mixed-dimensional model containing shell and volume elements side by side can be used. This approach can significantly reduce the time needed to mesh and solve the system. Unfortunately, problems arise when trying to connect elements of different dimensions due to modeling problems, to incompatible degrees of freedom and to independently created meshes. This paper presents a solution to these problems based on the generation of a compatible mesh composed solely of basic elements and without the requirement of constraint equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]