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An 8‐node solid element applicable for thin structures is presented. The element employs eighteen assumed stress modes and the conventional displacement interpolation. The formulation starts with the hybrid stress element proposed by Pian and Tong. The higher order stress modes are first decomposed into the ones which do and do not lead to thin‐element locking. The recently established methodology of admissible matrix formulation allows the decoupling of the above two categories of stress modes in the flexibility matrix without triggering element instability or failure of the patch test. The element stiffness can thus be decomposed into a series of matrices. Locking can be eliminated by adjusting the magnitude of the pertinent matrices. Accuracy and convergence rate of the present element are found to be competent to many of the existing plate and shell models.

Hexahedral meshing is one of the most important steps in performing an accurate simulation using the finite element analysis (FEA). However, the current hexahedral meshing method in the industry is a nonautomatic and inefficient method, i.e. manually decomposing the model into suitable blocks and obtaining the hexahedral mesh from these blocks by mapping or sweeping algorithms. The purpose of this paper is to propose an almost automatic decomposition algorithm based on the 3D frame field and model features to replace the traditional time-consuming and laborious manual decomposition method.

The proposed algorithm is based on the 3D frame field and features, where features are used to construct feature-cutting surfaces and the 3D frame field is used to construct singular-cutting surfaces. The feature-cutting surfaces constructed from concave features first reduce the complexity of the model and decompose it into some coarse blocks. Then, an improved 3D frame field algorithm is performed on these coarse blocks to extract the singular structure and construct singular-cutting surfaces to further decompose the coarse blocks. In most modeling examples, the proposed algorithm uses both types of cutting surfaces to decompose models fully automatically. In a few examples with special requirements for hexahedral meshes, the algorithm requires manual input of some user-defined cutting surfaces and constructs different singular-cutting surfaces to ensure the effectiveness of the decomposition.

Benefiting from the feature decomposition and the 3D frame field algorithm, the output blocks of the proposed algorithm have no inner singular structure and are suitable for the mapping or sweeping algorithm. The introduction of internal constraints makes 3D frame field generation more robust in this paper, and it can automatically correct some invalid 3–5 singular structures. In a few examples with special requirements, the proposed algorithm successfully generates valid blocks even though the singular structure of the model is modified by user-defined cutting surfaces.

The proposed algorithm takes the advantage of feature decomposition and the 3D frame field to generate suitable blocks for a mapping or sweeping algorithm, which saves a lot of simulation time and requires less experience. The user-defined cutting surfaces enable the creation of special hexahedral meshes, which was difficult with previous algorithms. An improved 3D frame field generation method is proposed to correct some invalid singular structures and improve the robustness of the previous methods.

An easy and robust grid‐based approach is proposed to construct the fully hexahedral mesh in three‐dimensional case and its application for the mesh regeneration or remeshing during the finite element simulation of a metal forming process is presented to show the validity and effectiveness of the scheme. The proposed scheme enables the construction of the provisional mesh by superimposing the regular cubical grid over the object to be meshed and removing the exterior grid points and cells. Because the constructed provisional mesh has the discrete rugged boundary that is quite different from the boundary geometry of the object to be meshed, the nodes on the boundary of the provisional mesh are projected onto the object boundary. The main disadvantage of the mesh constructed by grid‐based approaches is its severely distorted elements on the boundary owing to the projection of the rugged boundary onto the object boundary. In order to improve the quality of boundary elements, some layers of elements on the boundary surface are constructed and the nodes are repositioned by mesh smoothing. Consequently, the quality of boundary elements is effectively improved.

The purpose of this paper is to present a simplified hybrid modeling (HYMOD) approach which overcomes limitations regarding computational cost and permits the simulation and prediction of the nonlinear inelastic behavior of full-scale RC structures.

The proposed HYMOD formulation was integrated in a research software ReConAn FEA and was numerically studied through the use of different numerical implementations. Then the method was used to model a full-scale two-storey RC building, in an attempt to demonstrate its numerical robustness and efficiency.

The numerical results performed demonstrate the advantages of the proposed hybrid numerical simulation for the prediction of the nonlinear ultimate limit state response of RC structures.

A new numerical modeling method based on finite element method is proposed for simulating accurately and with computational efficiency, the mechanical behavior of RC structures. Currently 3D detailed methods are used to model single structural members or small parts of RC structures. The proposed method overcomes the above constraints.

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 provide industrial, education and academic users of computer programs a basic overview of finite elements in metal forming that will enable them to recognize the pitfalls of the existing formulations, identify the possible sources of errors and understand the routes for validating their numerical results.

The methodology draws from the fundamentals of the finite elements, plasticity and material science to aspects of computer implementation, modelling, accuracy, reliability and validation. The approach is illustrated and enriched with selected examples obtained from research and industrial metal forming applications.

The presentation is a step towards diminishing the gap being formed between developers of the finite element computer programs and the users having the know‐how on the metal forming technology. It is shown that there are easy and efficient ways of refreshing and upgrading the knowledge and skills of the users without resorting to complicated theoretical and numerical topics that go beyond their knowledge and most often are lectured out of metal forming context.

The overall content of the paper is enhancement of previous work in the field of sheet and bulk metal forming, and from experience in lecturing these topics to students in graduate and post‐graduate courses and to specialists of metal forming from industry.

The purpose of this paper is to give a review on the newest developments of high-performance finite element methods (FEMs), and exhibit the recent contributions achieved by the authors’ group, especially showing some breakthroughs against inherent difficulties existing in the traditional FEM for a long time.

Three kinds of new FEMs are emphasized and introduced, including the hybrid stress-function element method, the hybrid displacement-function element method for Mindlin–Reissner plate and the improved unsymmetric FEM. The distinguished feature of these three methods is that they all apply the fundamental analytical solutions of elasticity expressed in different coordinates as their trial functions.

The new FEMs show advantages from both analytical and numerical approaches. All the models exhibit outstanding capacity for resisting various severe mesh distortions, and even perform well when other models cannot work. Some difficulties in the history of FEM are also broken through, such as the limitations defined by MacNeal’s theorem and the edge-effect problems of Mindlin–Reissner plate.

These contributions possess high value for solving the difficulties in engineering computations, and promote the progress of FEM.

To improve flow solutions on meshes with cells/elements which are distorted/ non‐orthogonal.

The cell‐centred finite volume (FV) discretisation method is well established in computational fluid dynamics analysis for modelling physical processes and is typically employed in most commercial tools. This method is computationally efficient, but its accuracy and convergence behaviour may be compromised on meshes which feature cells with non‐orthogonal shapes, as can occur when modelling very complex geometries. A co‐located vertex‐based (VB) discretisation and partially staggered, VB/cell‐centred (CC), discretisation of the hydrodynamic variables are investigated and compared with purely CC solutions on a number of increasingly distorted meshes.

The co‐located CC method fails to produce solutions on all the distorted meshes investigated. Although more expensive computationally, the co‐located VB simulation results always converge whilst its accuracy appears to grace‐fully degrade on all meshes, no matter how extreme the element distortion. Although the hybrid, partially staggered, formulations also allow solutions on all the meshes, the results have larger errors than the co‐located vertex based method and are as expensive computationally; thus, offering no obvious advantage.

Employing the ability of the VB technique to resolve the flow field on a distorted mesh may well enable solutions to be obtained on complex meshes where established CC approaches fail

This paper investigates a range of cell centred, vertex based and hybrid approaches to FV discretisation of the NS hydrodynamic variables, in an effort characterize their capability at generating solutions on meshes with distorted or non‐orthogonal cells/elements.

Based on the recent advances of hybrid stress finite elements, a series of alternative stress assumptions for these elements are investigated. Several new element models are proposed by using different concepts for the stress interpolation. Under a unified formulation presented in this paper for Hellinger—Reissner principle based hybrid stress element models, the element series 5β‐family for plane stress and 18β‐family for three‐dimensional problems are discussed. The extra incompatible displacements sometimes also added are not introduced in this unified formulation. A number of popular benchmark elastic problems are examined for both two element families. In each family, the element model presented in this paper using normalized transformed higher order stress trials usually gives better predictions than the others.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element meshing and remeshing from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. Topics such as adaptive techniques for meshing and remeshing, parallel processing in the finite element modelling, etc. are also included. The bibliography at the end of this paper contains 1,727 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with presented subjects that were published between 1990 and 2001.