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Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

The purpose of this paper is to present eight local elasto‐plastic beam element formulations incorporated into the corotational framework for two‐noded three‐dimensional beams. These formulations capture the warping torsional effects of open cross‐sections and are suitable for the analysis of the nonlinear buckling and post‐buckling of thin‐walled frames with generic cross‐sections. The paper highlights the similarities and discrepancies between the different local element formulations. The primary goal of this study is to compare all the local element formulations in terms of accuracy, efficiency and CPU‐running time.

The definition of the corotational framework for a two‐noded three‐dimensional beam element is presented, based upon the works of Battini .The definitions of the local element kinematics and displacements shape functions are developed based on both Timoshenko and Bernoulli assumptions, and considering low‐order as well as higher‐order terms in the second‐order approximation of the Green‐Lagrange strains. Element forces interpolations and generalized stress resultant vectors are then presented for both mixed‐based Timoshenko and Bernoulli formulations. Subsequently, the local internal force vector and tangent stiffness matrix are derived using the principle of virtual work for displacement‐based elements and the two‐field Hellinger‐Reissner assumed stress variational principle for mixed‐based formulations, respectively. A full comparison and assessment of the different local element models are performed by means of several numerical examples.

In this study, it is shown that the higher order elements are more accurate than the low‐order ones, and that the use of the higher order mixed‐based Bernoulli element seems to require the least number of FEs to accurately model the structural behavior, and therefore allows some reduction of the CPU time compared to the other converged solutions; where a larger number of elements are needed to efficiently discretize the structure.

The paper reports computation times for each model in order to assess their relative efficiency. The effect of the numbers of Gauss points along the element length and within the cross‐section are also investigated.

The goal of the presented work is the efficient computation of Maxwell boundary and eigenvalue problems using high order H(curl) finite elements.

Discusses a systematic strategy for the realization of arbitrary order hierarchic H(curl)‐conforming finite elements for triangular and tetrahedral element geometries. The shape functions are classified as lowest order Nédélec, higher‐order edge‐based, face‐based (only in 3D) and element‐based ones.

Our new shape functions provide not only the global complete sequence property but also local complete sequence properties for each edge‐, face‐, and element‐block. This local property allows an arbitrary variable choice of the polynomial degree for each edge, face, and element. A second advantage of this construction is that simple block‐diagonal preconditioning gets efficient. Our high order shape functions contain gradient shape functions explicitly. In the case of a magnetostatic boundary value problem, the gradient basis functions can be skipped, which reduces the problem size, and improves the condition number.

Successfully applies the new high order elements for a 3D magnetostatic boundary value problem, and a Maxwell eigenvalue problem showing severe edge and corner singularities.

In this work, the authors aim to employ the so-called linked-interpolation concept already tested on beam and quadrilateral plate finite elements in the design of displacement-based higher-order triangular plate finite elements and test their performance.

Starting from the analogy between the Timoshenko beam theory and the Mindlin plate theory, a family of triangular linked-interpolation plate finite elements of arbitrary order are designed. The elements are tested on the standard set of examples.

The derived elements pass the standard patch tests and also the higher-order patch tests of an order directly related to the order of the element. The lowest-order member of the family of developed elements still suffers from shear locking for very coarse meshes, but the higher-order elements turn out to be successful when compared to the elements from literature for the problems with the same total number of the degrees of freedom.

The elements designed perform well for a number of standard benchmark tests, but the well-known Morley's skewed plate example turns out to be rather demanding, i.e. the proposed design principle cannot compete with the mixed-type approach for this test. Work is under way to improve the proposed displacement-based elements by adding a number of internal bubble functions in the displacement and rotation fields, specifically chosen to satisfy the basic patch test and enable a softer response in the bench-mark test examples.

A new family of displacement-based higher-order triangular Mindlin plate finite elements has been derived. The higher-order elements perform very well, whereas the lowest-order element requires improvement.

The main aim of the current paper is to find a numerical plan for hydraulic fracturing problem with application in extracting natural gases and oil.

First, time discretization is accomplished via Crank-Nicolson and semi-implicit techniques. At the second step, a high-order finite element method using quadratic triangular elements is proposed to derive the spatial discretization. The efficiency and time consuming of both obtained schemes will be investigated. In addition to the popular uniform mesh refinement strategy, an adaptive mesh refinement strategy will be employed to reduce computational costs.

Numerical results show a good agreement between the two schemes as well as the efficiency of the employed techniques to capture acceptable patterns of the model. In central single-crack mode, the experimental results demonstrate that maximal values of displacements in x- and y- directions are 0.1 and 0.08, respectively. They occur around both ends of the line and sides directly next to the line where pressure takes impact. Moreover, the pressure of injected fluid almost gained its initial value, i.e. 3,000 inside and close to the notch. Further, the results for non-central single-crack mode and bifurcated crack mode are depicted. In central single-crack mode and square computational area with a uniform mesh, computational times corresponding to the numerical schemes based on the high order finite element method for spatial discretization and Crank-Nicolson as well as semi-implicit techniques for temporal discretizations are 207.19s and 97.47s, respectively, with 2,048 elements, final time T = 0.2 and time step size τ = 0.01. Also, the simulations effectively illustrate a further decrease in computational time when the method is equipped with an adaptive mesh refinement strategy. The computational cost is reduced to 4.23s when the governed model is solved with the numerical scheme based on the adaptive high order finite element method and semi-implicit technique for spatial and temporal discretizations, respectively. Similarly, in other samples, the reduction of computational cost has been shown.

This is the first time that the high-order finite element method is employed to solve the model investigated in the current paper.

The importance of vector finite elements for electromagnetic field computation has been extensively demonstrated in the recent literature. In this study we present a systematic approach to the construction of higher order vector shape functions based on dual vector expansions. The methodology presented results in explicit forms for second order elements. Moreover, it reveals the presence of a whole family of vector finite elements depending on the choice of the degrees of freedom and a set of arbitrary parameters.

Piezoelectric actuators and sensors are an invaluable part of lightweight designs for several reasons. They can either be used in noise cancellation devices as thin‐walled structures are prone to acoustic emissions, or in shape control approaches to suppress unwanted vibrations. Also in Lamb wave based health monitoring systems piezoelectric patches are applied to excite and to receive ultrasonic waves. The purpose of this paper is to develop a higher order finite element with piezoelectric capabilities in order to simulate smart structures efficiently.

In the paper the development of a new fully three‐dimensional piezoelectric hexahedral finite element based on the p‐version of the finite element method (FEM) is presented. Hierarchic Legendre polynomials in combination with an anisotropic ansatz space are utilized to derive an electro‐mechanically coupled element. This results in a reduced numerical effort. The suitability of the proposed element is demonstrated using various static and dynamic test examples.

In the current contribution it is shown that higher order coupled‐field finite elements hold several advantages for smart structure applications. All numerical examples have been found to agree well with previously published results. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that accurate results can be obtained with far fewer degrees of freedom compared to conventional low order finite element approaches. Thus, the proposed finite element can lead to a significant reduction in the overall numerical costs.

To the best of the author's knowledge, no piezoelectric finite element based on the hierarchical‐finite‐element‐method has yet been published in the literature. Thus, the proposed finite element is a step towards a holistic numerical treatment of structural health monitoring (SHM) related problems using p‐version finite elements.

The paper presents the principal elements of automatic adaptivity built in our 2D software for monolithic solution of multiphysics problems based on a fully adaptive finite element method of higher order of accuracy. The adaptive techniques are illustrated by appropriate examples.

Presented are algorithms for realization of the h‐adaptivity, p‐adaptivity, hp‐adaptivity, creation of curvilinear elements for modelling general boundaries and interfaces. Indicated also is the possibility of combining triangular and quadrilateral elements (both classical and curved).

The presented higher‐order adaptive processes are reliable, robust and lead to a substantial reduction of the degrees of freedom in comparison with the techniques used in low‐order finite element methods. They allow solving examples that are by classical approaches either unsolvable or solvable at a cost of high memory and time of computation.

The adaptive processes described in the paper are still limited to 2D computations. Their computer implementation is highly nontrivial (every physical field in a multiphysics task is generally solved on a different mesh satisfying its specific features) and in 3D the number of possible adaptive steps is many times higher.

The described adaptive techniques may represent a powerful tool for the monolithic solution of complex multiphysics problems.

The presented higher‐order adaptive approach of solution is shown to provide better results than the schemes implemented in professional codes based on low‐order finite element methods. Obtaining the results, moreover, requires less time and computer memory.

Several second order edge elements have been applied to solving magnetostatic problems. The performances of these elements are compared through an example of magnetic circuit. In order to ensure the compatibility of the system equations and hence the convergence, the current density is represented by the curl of a source field. This avoids an explicit gauge condition which is cumbersome in the case of high order elements.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a solution strategy for both accurate and efficient simulation of nonlinear magnetostatic problems in thin structures using higher order finite element methods. Special interest is put in the investigation of the step-lap joints of transformer cores, with a focus on the spatial resolution of the field quantities.

The usage of hierarchical finite elements of higher order makes it possible to adapt the local accuracy in different spatial directions in thin steel sheets. Due to explicit representation of gradients in the basis functions, a simple Schwarz-type block preconditioner with a conjugate gradient solver can efficiently solve the arising algebraic system. By adapting the block size automatically according to the aspect ratio, deterioration of convergence in case of thin elements can be prevented. The resulting Newton scheme is accelerated utilizing the hierarchical splitting in a two-level scheme, where an initial guess is computed on a coarse sub-space.

Compared to an isotropic choice of polynomial order for the basis functions, significant runtime and memory can be saved in the simulation of thin structures without losing accuracy. The iterative solution scheme proves to be robust with respect to the polynomial order, even for aspect ratios of 1:1000 and anisotropies in two directions. An additional saving in runtime and Newton iterations can be achieved by solving the nonlinear problem initially on the lowest order basis functions only and projecting the solution to the complete space as starting value, analogous to a full multigrid scheme.

Within the presented solution strategy, especially the anisotropic block preconditioner and the accelerated Newton scheme based on the two-level splitting constitute a novel contribution. They provide building blocks, which can be utilized for other types of magnetic field problems like transient nonlinear problems or hysteresis modeling as well.