8-node and 12-node plane elements based on assumed stress quasi-conforming method immune to distorted mesh

Abstract

Purpose

Severe accuracy loss may occur when finite element comes to the distorted mesh model, and the calculation may fail when element mesh degenerates into concave quadrangle or the element boundary is curved. This is a valuable research topic, and many efforts have been made to develop new finite element models. This paper aims to propose two quasi-conforming membrane elements based on the assumed stress quasi-conforming method and fundamental analytical solutions to overcome the difficulties.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the fundamental analytical solutions which satisfied both the equilibrium and the compatibility relations of plane stress problem are used as the initial assumed stress of both elements. Then, the stress-function matrices are used as the weighted functions to weaken the strain-displacement equations, which makes only string-net functions on the boundary of the elements are needed in the process of strain integration. Finally, boundary interpolation functions expressed by unknown nodal displacement parameters are adopted to the process of strain integration.

Findings

The formulations of both elements are simple and concise, and the elements are immune to the distorted mesh, which can be used to the mesh shape degenerates into a triangle or concave quadrangle and curved-side element. The results of the numerical tests have proven that the new models possess high accuracy.

Originality/value

New formulations of quasi-conforming method are described is detail, and the new strategy exhibits advantages of both analytical and discrete methods.

Citation

Wang, C., Wang, Y., Yang, C., Zhang, X. and Hu, P. (2017), "8-node and 12-node plane elements based on assumed stress quasi-conforming method immune to distorted mesh", Engineering Computations, Vol. 34 No. 8, pp. 2731-2751. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-11-2016-0404