Smoothed Finite Element Method (original) (raw)
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A Smoothed Finite Element Method for Mechanics Problems
Computational Mechanics, 2006
In the finite element method (FEM), a necessary condition for a four-node isoparametric element is that no interior angle is greater than 180 • and the positivity of Jacobian determinant should be ensured in numerical implementation. In this paper, we incorporate cell-wise strain smoothing operations into conventional finite elements and propose the smoothed finite element method (SFEM) for 2D elastic problems. It is found that a quadrilateral element divided into four smoothing cells can avoid spurious modes and gives stable results for integration over the element. Compared with original FEM, the SFEM achieves more accurate results and generally higher convergence rate in energy without increasing computational cost. More importantly, as no mapping or coordinate transformation is involved in the SFEM, its element is allowed to be of arbitrary shape. Hence the restriction on the shape bilinear isoparametric elements can be removed and problem domain can be discretized in more flexible ways, as demonstrated in the example problems.
A cell-based smoothed finite-element method for gradient elasticity
Engineering With Computers, 2022
In this paper, the cell-based smoothed finite-element method (CS-FEM) is proposed for solving boundary value problems of gradient elasticity in two and three dimensions. The salient features of the CS-FEM are: it does not require an explicit form of the shape functions and alleviates the need for iso-parametric mapping. The main idea is to sub-divide the element into simplicial sub-cells and to use a constant smoothing function in each cell to compute the gradients. This new gradient is then used to compute the bilinear/linear form. The robustness of the method is demonstrated with problems involving smooth and singular solutions in both two and three dimensions. Numerical results show that the proposed framework is able to yield accurate results. The influence of the internal length scale on the stress concentration is studied systematically for a case of a plate with a hole and a plate with an edge crack in two and three dimensions.
Theoretical aspects of the smoothed finite element method (SFEM)
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 2007
This paper examines the theoretical bases for the smoothed finite element method (SFEM), which was formulated by incorporating cell-wise strain smoothing operation into standard compatible finite element method (FEM). The weak form of SFEM can be derived from the Hu-Washizu three-field variational principle. For elastic problems, it is proved that 1D linear element and 2D linear triangle element in SFEM are identical to their counterparts in FEM, while 2D bilinear quadrilateral elements in SFEM are different from that of FEM: when the number of smoothing cells (SCs) of the elements equals 1, the SFEM solution is proved to be 'variationally consistent' and has the same properties with those of FEM using reduced integration; when SC approaches infinity, the SFEM solution will approach the solution of the standard displacement compatible FEM model; when SC is a finite number larger than 1, the SFEM solutions are not 'variationally consistent' but 'energy consistent', and will change monotonously from the solution of SFEM (SC = 1) to that of SFEM (SC → ∞). It is suggested that there exists an optimal number of SC such that the SFEM solution is closest to the exact solution. The properties of SFEM are confirmed by numerical examples.
Smoothed Finite Element Methods for Nonlinear Solid Mechanics Problems: 2D and 3D Case Studies
2016
The Smoothed Finite Element Method (SFEM) is presented as an edge-based and a facebased techniques for 2D and 3D boundary value problems, respectively. SFEMs avoid shortcomings of the standard Finite Element Method (FEM) with lower order elements such as overly stiff behavior, poor stress solution, and locking effects. Based on the idea of averaging spatially the standard strain field of the FEM over so-called smoothing domains SFEM calculates the stiffness matrix for the same number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) as those of the FEM. However, the SFEMs significantly improve accuracy and convergence even for distorted meshes and/or nearly incompressible materials. Numerical results of the SFEMs for a cardiac tissue membrane (thin plate inflation) and an artery (tension of 3D tube) show clearly their advantageous properties in improving accuracy particularly for the distorted meshes and avoiding shear locking effects.
By using the strain smoothing technique proposed by Chen et al. [1] for meshless methods in the context of the finite element method (FEM), Liu et al. [2] developed the Smoothed FEM (SFEM). Although the SFEM is not yet well-understood mathematically, numerical experiments point to potentially useful features of this particularly simple modification of the FEM. To date, the SFEM has only been investigated for bilinear and Wachspress approximations and limited to linear reproducing conditions. The goal of this paper is to extend the strain smoothing to higher order elements and to investigate numerically the convergence properties in which conditions strain smoothing is beneficial to accuracy and convergence of enriched finite element approximations. We focus on three widely used enrichment schemes, namely: (a) weak discontinuities; (b) strong discontinuities; (c) near-tip linear elastic fracture mechanics functions The main conclusion is that strain smoothing in enriched approximation is only beneficial when the enrichment functions are polynomial [cases (a) and (b)], but that non-polynomial enrichment of type (c) lead to inferior methods compared to standard enriched FEM (e.g. XFEM).
Computational Mechanics, 2009
An edge-based smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) using triangular elements was recently proposed to improve the accuracy and convergence rate of the existing standard finite element method (FEM) for the elastic solid mechanics problems. In this paper, the ES-FEM is extended to more complicated visco-elastoplastic analyses using the von-Mises yield function and the Prandtl-Reuss flow rule. The material behavior includes perfect visco-elastoplasticity and visco-elastoplasticity with isotropic and linear kinematic hardening. The formulation shows that the bandwidth of stiffness matrix of the ES-FEM is larger than that of the FEM, and hence the computational cost of the ES-FEM in numerical examples is larger than that of the FEM for the same mesh. However, when the efficiency of computation (computation time for the same accuracy) in terms of a posteriori error estimation is considered, the ES-FEM is more efficient than the FEM.
한국전산구조공학회 논문집, 2024
This paper presents two-dimensional boundary value problems of the stress-based gradient elasticity within the smoothed finite element method (S-FEM) framework. Gradient elasticity is introduced to address the limitations of classical elasticity, particularly its struggle to capture size-dependent mechanical behavior at the micro/nano scale. The Ru-Aifantis theorem is employed to overcome the challenges of high-order differential equations in gradient elasticity. This theorem effectively splits the original equation into two solvable second-order differential equations, enabling its incorporation into the S-FEM framework. The present method utilizes a staggered scheme to solve the boundary value problems. This approach efficiently separates the calculation of the local displacement field (obtained over each smoothing domain) from the non-local stress field (computed element-wise). A series of numerical tests are conducted to investigate the influence of the internal length scale, a key parameter in gradient elasticity. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in smoothing stress concentrations typically observed at crack tips and dislocation lines.