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New contact boundary modelling is achieved with a basic set of 2 and 3 dimension contact primitives. Contact constraints are originally introduced in the variational equations and associated Newton—Raphson scheme via an external penalty formulation using primitive equations. Consequently, penalty part of external load vector and tangent stiffness matrices are developed for all contact primitives. In this way, contact prescribed boundary displacements are also taken into account. Contact treatment is then completed with Newton—Raphson elements for elastic and plastic regularized friction constitutive models. In this paper, the process is extended to elastoplastic models. Finally, we propose a self acting procedure with contact algorithms (interiority, sliding and contact loss) and related subroutines for implementation in finite element framework. We illustrate these developments by means of two‐dimensional open die forging and three‐dimensional plate coining typical benchmarks with reference to bulk elastoplastic and viscoplastic constitutive models.

The simplest facet‐shell formulation involves the combination of the constant‐strain membrane triangle with a constant‐curvature bending triangle. The paper first describes an alternative co‐rotational procedure to the one initially proposed by Peng and Crisfield in 1992. This new formulation introduces a spin matrix which allows a simpler formulation for the consistent tangent stiffness matrix. The paper then moves to the dynamics of the element. To obtain stable solutions, an energy‐conserving mid‐point time‐integration scheme is developed. This scheme exactly conserves the total energy when external forces are constant and when the physical system does not present any damping. The performance of this scheme is compared with other more conventional implicit schemes through a set of numerical examples involving large‐scale rotations.

Many engineering structures exhibit loss of stability under static and dynamic loading. Due to the significance of these phenomena in engineering design this topic has attracted considerable attention during the last decades. In recent years much effort has been made to devise algorithms within finite element analysis to investigate the static stability behaviour of structures. With these methods stable and unstable paths can be traced, and limit or bifurcation points can be computed efficiently. The associated arc‐length or branch‐switching procedures are today standard tools in existing finite element codes.

The paper describes the extension of the critical displacement method (CDM), presented by Oñate and Matias in 1996, to the instability analysis of structures with non‐linear material behaviour using a simple damage model. The extended CDM is useful to detect instability points using a prediction of the critical displacement field and a secant load‐displacement relationship accounting for material non‐linearities. Examples of application of CDM to the instability analysis of structures using bar and solid finite elements are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to expand the previously published fuzzy logic controller for contact method to normal frictionless contact for solving mechanical frictional contact problems. The secondary aim is to integrate a reduction model for each component in contact to decrease the size of the global finite element contact problem.

The proposed strategy relies on the design of two fuzzy logic controllers currently used in the automation domain. These controllers are considered to link normal and tangential gaps (for sticking conditions) with normal and tangential contact loads. A direct consequence of integrating a control-based approach into the numerical solving approach is the decomposition of the non-linear problem into a set of linear problems.

With this new strategy, no tangent or coupling matrix is defined for the contact problem that allows to consider a projection matrix to reduce the size of each component in contact and subsequently to decrease the associated computational time. As in condensation techniques, this matrix is composed of both modal bases of each component in contact and static modes that capture behaviors at the contact interface. Moreover, the proposed numerical application highlights the efficiency of the proposal in terms of computation time and precision of contact data.

The developments are currently implemented in Matlab only for 2D static numerical applications. Therefore, as obtained results are very promising in terms of precision and computational time, the objective is to complete the proposed method in future research to manage frictional contact for 3D finite element models in a dynamic context.

In conclusion, this paper highlights the interest of studying mechanical frictional contact problems by considering fuzzy logic control approaches.

A stiffened shell element is presented for geometrically non‐linear analysis of eccentrically stiffened shell structures. Modelling with this element is more accurate than with the traditional equivalent orthotropic plate element or with lumping stiffeners. In addition, mesh generation is easier than with the conventional finite element approach where the shell and beam elements are combined explicitly to represent stiffened structures. In the present non‐linear finite element procedure, the tangent stiffness matrix is derived using the updated Lagrangian formulation and the element strains, stresses, and internal force vectors are updated employing a corotational approach. The non‐vectorial characteristic of large rotations is taken into account. This stiffened shell element formulation is ideally suited for implementation into existing linear finite element programs and its accuracy and effectiveness have been demonstrated in several numerical examples.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new effective integration method for cyclic plasticity models.

By defining an integrating factor and an augmented stress vector, the system of differential equations of the constitutive model is converted into a nonlinear dynamical system, which could be solved by an exponential map algorithm.

The numerical tests show the robustness and high efficiency of the proposed integration scheme.

The von‐Mises yield criterion in the regime of small deformation is assumed. In addition, the model obeys a general nonlinear kinematic hardening and an exponential isotropic hardening.

Integrating the constitutive equations in order to update the material state is one of the most important steps in a nonlinear finite element analysis. The accuracy of the integration method could directly influence the result of the elastoplastic analyses.

The paper deals with integrating the constitutive equations in a nonlinear finite element analysis. This subject could be interesting for the academy as well as industry. The proposed exponential‐based integration method is more efficient than the classical strategies.

This paper presents several methods for enhancing computational efficiency in both static and dynamic analysis of structural systems with localized non‐linear behaviour. A significant reduction of computational effort with respect to brute‐force non‐linear analysis is achieved in all cases at the insignificant (or no) loss of accuracy. The presented methodologies are easily incorporated into a standard computer program for linear analysis.

The numerical simulation of metal forming processes approximated by means of finite element techniques, require large computational effort, which contradicts the need of interactivity for industrial applications. This work analyses the computational efficiency of algorithms combining elastoplasticity with finite deformation and contact mechanics, and in particular, the optimum solution of the linear systems to be solved through the incremental‐iterative schemes associated with non linear implicit analysis. A method based on domain decomposition techniques especially adapted to contact problems is presented, as well as the improved performance obtained in the application to hot rolling simulation, as a consequence of bandwidth reduction and the differentiated treatment of subdomains along the non linear analysis.

The use of enhanced strains leads to an improved performance of low order finite elements. A modified Hu‐Washizu variational formulation with orthogonal stress and strain functions is considered. The use of orthogonal functions leads to a formulation with B (overline) ‐strain matrices which avoids numerical inversion of matrices. Depending on the choice of the stress and strain functions in Cartesian or natural element coordinates one can recover, for example, the hybrid stress element P‐S of Pian‐Sumihara or the Trefftz‐type element QE2 of Piltner and Taylor. With the mixed formulation discussed in this paper a simple extension of the high precision elements P‐S and QE2 to general non‐linear problems is possible, since the final computer implementation of the mixed element is very similar to the implementation of a displacement element. Instead of sparse B‐matrices, sparse B (overline) ‐matrices are used and the typical matrix inversions of hybrid and mixed methods can be avoided. The two most efficient four‐node B (overline) ‐elements for plane strain and plane stress in this study are denoted B (overline)(x, y)‐QE4 and B (overline)(ξ, η)‐QE4.