A restricted hybrid stress formulation based on a direct finite element method

A direct method, which uses stress and displacement modes obtained from the governing equations of a problem, is adopted for finite element formulation. It is shown that this method actually leads to a restricted hybrid stress formulation if the displacement modes are changed to ensure symmetry of the stiffness matrix. Through this direct method, however, the problem of selecting the appropriate number of stress modes in the regular hybrid stress model is bypassed. Only the minimum number of modes that are compatible with the number of nodal degrees-of-freedom of an element is needed in the formulation. Using more modes only leads to a combination of stress modes, and will not improve the order of performance of the element. It is shown through numerical examples that the restricted hybrid stress formulation leads to well-balanced elements.