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Presents recent advances obtained by the authors in the development of enhanced strain finite elements for finite deformation problems. Discusses two options, both involving simple modifications of the original enhancement strategy of the deformation gradient as proposed in previous works. The first new strategy is based on a full symmetrization of the original enhanced interpolation fields; the second involves only the transposed part of these fields. Both modifications lead to a significant improvement of the performance in problems involving high compressive stresses, showing in particular a mode‐free response, while maintaining a simple and efficient (strain driven) numerical implementation. Demonstrates these properties with a number of numerical benchmark simulations, including a complete modal analysis of the elements.

As known from nearly incompressible elasticity, selective reduced integration (SRI) is a simple and effective method of overcoming the volumetric locking problem in 2D and 3D solid elements. This method of finite elastoviscoplasticity is discussed as are its well‐known limitations. In this context, an isochoric‐volumetric decoupled material behavior is assumed and thus the additive deviatoric‐volumetric decoupling of the consistent algorithmic moduli tensor is essential. By means of several numerical examples, the performance of elements using selective reduced integration is demonstrated and compared to the performance of other elements such as the enhanced assumed strain elements. It is shown that a minor modification, with little numerical effort, leads to rather robust element behaviour. The application of this process to so‐called solid‐shell elements for thin‐walled structures is also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to present a variational mesh h-adaption approach for strongly coupled thermomechanical problems.

The mesh is adapted by local subdivision controlled by an energy criterion. Thermal and thermomechanical problems are of interest here. In particular, steady and transient purely thermal problems, transient strongly coupled thermoelasticity and thermoplasticity problems are investigated.

Different test cases are performed to test the robustness of the algorithm for the problems listed above. It is found that a better cost-effectiveness can be obtained with that approach compared to a uniform refining procedure. Because the algorithm is based on a set of tolerance parameters, parametric analyses and a study of their respective influence on the mesh adaption are carried out. This detailed analysis is performed on unidimensional problems, and a final example is provided in two dimensions.

This work presents an original approach for independent h-adaption of a mechanical and a thermal mesh in strongly coupled problems, based on an incremental variational formulation. The approach does not rely on (or attempt to provide) error estimation in the classical sense. It could merely be considered to provide an error indicator. Instead, it provides a practical methodology to adapt the mesh on the basis of the variational structure of the underlying mathematical problem.

The objective of this work is to develop an element technology to recover the plane stress response without any plane stress specific modifications in the large strain regime. Therefore, the essential feature of the proposed element formulation is an interface to arbitrary three‐dimensional constitutive laws. The easily implemented and computational cheap four‐noded element is characterized by coarse mesh accuracy and the satisfaction of the plane stress constraint in a weak sense. A number of example problems involving arbitrary small and large strain constitutive models demonstrate the excellent performance of the concept pursued in this work.

The formulation of finite elements with incompatible discontinuous modes is examined rigorously. Both weak and strong discontinuities are considered. Starting from a careful elaboration of the kinematics for both types of discontinuities a comprehensive finite element formulation is derived based on a three‐field variational statement. Similarities and differences are highlighted between the various formulations which ensue.

The purpose of this paper is to study the partitioned solution procedure for thermomechanical coupling, where each sub‐problem is solved by a separate time integration scheme.

In particular, the solution which guarantees that the coupling condition will preserve the stability of computations for the coupled problem is studied. The consideration is further generalized for the case where each sub‐problem will possess its particular time scale which requires different time step to be selected for each sub‐problem.

Several numerical simulations are presented to illustrate very satisfying performance of the proposed solution procedure and confirm the theoretical speed‐up of computations which follow from the adequate choice of the time step for each sub‐problem.

The paper confirms that one can make the most appropriate selection of the time step and carry out the separate computations for each sub‐problem, and then enforce the coupling which will preserve the stability of computations with such an operator split procedure.

Many practical problems in engineering require fast, accurate numerical results. In particular, in cyclic plasticity or fatigue simulations, the high number of loading cycles increases the computation effort and time. The purpose of this study is to show that the return mapping technique in the framework of unconventional plasticity theories is a good compromise between efficiency and accuracy in finite element analyses.

The accuracy of the closest point projection method and the cutting plane method implementations for the subloading surface model are discussed under different loading conditions by analyzing the error as a function of the input step size and the efficiency of the algorithms.

Monotonic tests show that the two different implicit integration schemes have the same accuracy and are in good agreement with the solution obtained using an explicit forward Euler scheme, even for large input steps. However, the closest point projection method seems to describe better the evolution of the similarity centre in the cyclic loading analyses.

The purpose of this work is to show two alternative implicit integration schemes of the extended subloading surface method for metallic materials. The backward Euler integrations can guarantee a good description of the material behaviour and, at the same time, reduce the computational cost. This aspect is particularly important in the field of low or high cycle fatigue, because of the large number of cycles involved.

A detailed description of both the cutting plane and closest point projection methods is offered in this work. In particular, the two integrations schemes are compared in terms of accuracy and computation time for monotonic and cyclic loading tests.

Considers the problem of stability of the enhanced strain elements in the presence of large deformations. The standard orthogonality condition between the enhanced strains and constant stresses ensures satisfaction of the patch test and convergence of the method in case of linear elasticity. However, this does not hold in the case of large deformations. By analytic derivation of the element eigenvalues in large strain states additional orthogonality conditions can be derived, leading to a stable formulation, regardless of the magnitude of deformations. Proposes a new element based on a consistent formulation of the enhanced gradient with respect to new orthogonality conditions which it retains with four enhanced modes volumetric and shear locking free behaviour of the original formulation and does not exhibit hour‐glassing for large deformations.

This paper focuses on the development of a new class of eight‐node solid finite elements, suitable for the treatment of volumetric and transverse shear locking problems. Doing so, the proposed elements can be used efficiently for 3D and thin shell applications. The starting point of the work relies on the analysis of the subspace of incompressible deformations associated with the standard (displacement‐based) fully integrated and reduced integrated hexahedral elements. Prediction capabilities for both formulations are defined related to nearly‐incompressible problems and an enhanced strain approach is developed to improve the performance of the earlier formulation in this case. With the insight into volumetric locking gained and benefiting from a recently proposed enhanced transverse shear strain procedure for shell applications, a new element conjugating both the capabilities of efficient solid and shell formulations is obtained. Numerical results attest the robustness and efficiency of the proposed approach, when compared to solid and shell elements well‐established in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to model the strain localization in J₂ materials with damage evolution using embedded strong discontinuity modes.

In this procedure, an heuristic bandwidth scale is adopted to model the damage evolution in the shear bands. The bifurcation triggering conditions and band growth directions are studied for these materials.

The resulting formulation does not require a specific mesh refinement to model a localization, provides mesh independent results also insensitive to element distortions and allows calibration of the model response using experimental data. The formulation capability is shown embedding the strong discontinuity modes into quadrilateral and higher order elements.

The work described in this paper extends the use of strong discontinuity modes to materials with damage evolution.