A face‐based smoothed finite element method (FS‐FEM) for 3D linear and geometrically non‐linear solid mechanics problems using 4‐node tetrahedral elements

This paper presents a novel face‐based smoothed finite element method (FS‐FEM) to improve the accuracy of the finite element method (FEM) for three‐dimensional (3D) problems. The FS‐FEM uses 4‐node tetrahedral elements that can be generated automatically for complicated domains. In the FS‐FEM, the system stiffness matrix is computed using strains smoothed over the smoothing domains associated with the faces of the tetrahedral elements. The results demonstrated that the FS‐FEM is significantly more accurate than the FEM using tetrahedral elements for both linear and geometrically non‐linear solid mechanics problems. In addition, a novel domain‐based selective scheme is proposed leading to a combined FS/NS‐FEM model that is immune from volumetric locking and hence works well for nearly incompressible materials. The implementation of the FS‐FEM is straightforward and no penalty parameters or additional degrees of freedom are used. The computational efficiency of the FS‐FEM is found better than that of the FEM. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computation of limit and shakedown loads using a node‐based smoothed finite element method

This paper presents a novel numerical procedure for computing limit and shakedown loads of structures using a node‐based smoothed FEM in combination with a primal–dual algorithm. An associated primal–dual form based on the von Mises yield criterion is adopted. The primal‐dual algorithm together with a Newton‐like iteration are then used to solve this associated primal–dual form to determine simultaneously both approximate upper and quasi‐lower bounds of the plastic collapse limit and the shakedown limit. The present formulation uses only linear approximations and its implementation into finite element programs is quite simple. Several numerical examples are given to show the reliability, accuracy, and generality of the present formulation compared with other available methods. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linear smoothed extended finite element method

The extended finite element method was introduced in 1999 to treat problems involving discontinuities with no or minimal remeshing through appropriate enrichment functions. This enables elements to be split by a discontinuity, strong or weak, and hence requires the integration of discontinuous functions or functions with discontinuous derivatives over elementary volumes. A variety of approaches have been proposed to facilitate these special types of numerical integration, which have been shown to have a large impact on the accuracy and the convergence of the numerical solution. The smoothed extended finite element method (XFEM), for example, makes numerical integration elegant and simple by transforming volume integrals into surface integrals. However, it was reported in the literature that the strain smoothing is inaccurate when non‐polynomial functions are in the basis. In this paper, we investigate the benefits of a recently developed Linear smoothing procedure which provides better approximation to higher‐order polynomial fields in the basis. Some benchmark problems in the context of linear elastic fracture mechanics are solved and the results are compared with existing approaches. We observe that the stress intensity factors computed through the proposed linear smoothed XFEM is more accurate than that obtained through smoothed XFEM.     

Virtual and smoothed finite elements: A connection and its application to polygonal/polyhedral finite element methods

We show both theoretically and numerically a connection between the smoothed finite element method (SFEM) and the virtual element method and use this approach to derive stable, cheap and optimally convergent polyhedral FEM. We show that the stiffness matrix computed with one subcell SFEM is identical to the consistency term of the virtual element method, irrespective of the topology of the element, as long as the shape functions vary linearly on the boundary. Using this connection, we propose a new stable approach to strain smoothing for polygonal/polyhedral elements where, instead of using sub‐triangulations, we are able to use one single polygonal/polyhedral subcell for each element while maintaining stability. For a similar number of degrees of freedom, the proposed approach is more accurate than the conventional SFEM with triangular subcells. The time to compute the stiffness matrix scales with the in case of the conventional polygonal FEM, while it scales as in the proposed approach. The accuracy and the convergence properties of the SFEM are studied with a few benchmark problems in 2D and 3D linear elasticity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A quasi‐implicit characteristic–based penalty finite‐element method for incompressible laminar viscous flows

In this paper, a novel characteristic–based penalty (CBP) scheme for the finite‐element method (FEM) is proposed to solve 2‐dimensional incompressible laminar flow. This new CBP scheme employs the characteristic‐Galerkin method to stabilize the convective oscillation. To mitigate the incompressible constraint, the selective reduced integration (SRI) and the recently proposed selective node–based smoothed FEM (SNS‐FEM) are used for the 4‐node quadrilateral element (CBP‐Q4SRI) and the 3‐node triangular element (CBP‐T3SNS), respectively. Meanwhile, the reduced integration (RI) for Q4 element (CBP‐Q4RI) and NS‐FEM for T3 element (CBP‐T3NS) with CBP scheme are also investigated. The quasi‐implicit CBP scheme is applied to allow a large time step for sufficient large penalty parameters. Due to the absences of pressure degree of freedoms, the quasi‐implicit CBP‐FEM has higher efficiency than quasi‐implicit CBS‐FEM. In this paper, the CBP‐Q4SRI has been verified and validated with high accuracy, stability, and fast convergence. Unexpectedly, CBP‐Q4RI is of no instability, high accuracy, and even slightly faster convergence than CBP‐Q4SRI. For unstructured T3 elements, CBP‐T3SNS also shows high accuracy and good convergence but with pressure oscillation using a large penalty parameter; CBP‐T3NS produces oscillated wrong velocity and pressure results. In addition, the applicable ranges of penalty parameter for different proposed methods have been investigated.     

Theoretical aspects of the smoothed finite element method (SFEM)

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. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bubble‐enhanced smoothed finite element formulation: a variational multi‐scale approach for volume‐constrained problems in two‐dimensional linear elasticity

This paper presents a bubble‐enhanced smoothed finite element formulation for the analysis of volume‐constrained problems in two‐dimensional linear elasticity. The new formulation is derived based on the variational multi‐scale approach in which unequal order displacement‐pressure pairs are used for the mixed finite element approximation and hierarchical bubble function is selected for the fine‐scale displacement approximation. An area‐weighted averaging scheme is employed for the two‐scale smoothed strain calculation under the framework of edge‐based smoothed FEM. The smoothed fine‐scale solution is shown to naturally contain the stress field jump of the smoothed coarse‐scale solution across the boundary of edge‐based smoothing domain and thus provides the possibility to stabilize the global solution for volume‐constrained problems. A global monolithic solution strategy is employed, and the fine‐scale solution is solved without the consideration of approximating the strong form of the fine‐scale equation. Several numerical examples are analyzed to demonstrate the accuracy of the present formulation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

F‐bar aided edge‐based smoothed finite element method using tetrahedral elements for finite deformation analysisof nearly incompressible solids

A new smoothed finite element method (S‐FEM) with tetrahedral elements for finite strain analysis of nearly incompressible solids is proposed. The proposed method is basically a combination of the F‐bar method and edge‐based S‐FEM with tetrahedral elements (ES‐FEM‐T4) and is named ‘F‐barES‐FEM‐T4’. F‐barES‐FEM‐T4 inherits the accuracy and shear locking‐free property of ES‐FEM‐T4. At the same time, it also inherits the volumetric locking‐free property of the F‐bar method. The isovolumetric part of the deformation gradient ( F ^iso) is derived from the F of ES‐FEM‐T4, whereas the volumetric part ( F ^vol) is derived from the cyclic smoothing of J(=det( F )) between elements and nodes. Some demonstration analyses confirm that F‐barES‐FEM‐T4 with a sufficient number of cyclic smoothings suppresses the pressure oscillation in nearly incompressible materials successfully with no increase in DOF. Moreover, they reveal that our method is capable of relaxing the corner locking issue arising at the corner in the cylinder barreling analysis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An enhanced cell‐based smoothed finite element method for the analysis of Reissner–Mindlin plate bending problems involving distorted mesh

In this work, an enhanced cell‐based smoothed finite element method (FEM) is presented for the Reissner–Mindlin plate bending analysis. The smoothed curvature computed by a boundary integral along the boundaries of smoothing cells in original smoothed FEM is reformulated, and the relationship between the original approach and the present method in curvature smoothing is established. To improve the accuracy of shear strain in a distorted mesh, we span the shear strain space over the adjacent element. This is performed by employing an edge‐based smoothing technique through a simple area‐weighted smoothing procedure on MITC4 assumed shear strain field. A three‐field variational principle is utilized to develop the mixed formulation. The resultant element formulation is further reduced to a displacement‐based formulation via an assumed strain method defined by the edge‐smoothing technique. As the result, a new formulation consisting of smoothed curvature and smoothed shear strain interpolated by the standard transverse displacement/rotation fields and smoothing operators can be shown to improve the solution accuracy in cell‐based smoothed FEM for Reissner–Mindlin plate bending analysis. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed formulation.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A locking‐free selective smoothed finite element method using tetrahedral and triangular elements with adaptive mesh rezoning for large deformation problems

A novel finite element (FE) formulation with adaptive mesh rezoning for large deformation problems is proposed. The proposed method takes the advantage of the selective smoothed FE method (S‐FEM), which has been recently developed as a locking‐free FE formulation with strain smoothing technique. We adopt the selective face‐based smoothed/node‐based smoothed FEM (FS/NS‐FEM‐T4) and edge‐based smoothed/node‐based smoothed FEM (ES/NS‐FEM‐T3) basically but modify them partly so that our method can handle any kind of material constitutive models other than elastic models. We also present an adaptive mesh rezoning method specialized for our S‐FEM formulation with material constitutive models in total form. Because of the modification of the selective S‐FEMs and specialization of adaptive mesh rezoning, our method is locking‐free for severely large deformation problems even with the use of tetrahedral and triangular meshes. The formulation details for static implicit analysis and several examples of analysis of the proposed method are presented in this paper to demonstrate its efficiency. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel singular ES-FEM method for simulating singular stress fields near the crack tips for linear fracture problems

This paper presents a novel numerical method for effectively simulating the singular stress field for mode-I fracture problems based on the edge-based smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM). Using the unique feature of the ES-FEM formulation, we need only the assumed displacement values (not the derivatives) on the boundary of the smoothing domains, and hence a new technique to construct singular shape functions is devised for the crack tip elements. Some examples have demonstrated that results of the present singular ES-FEM in terms of strain energy, displacement and J-integral are much more accurate than the finite element method using the same mesh.     

On computing upper and lower bounds on the outputs of linear elasticity problems approximated by the smoothed finite element method

Verification of the computation of local quantities of interest, e.g. the displacements at a point, the stresses in a local area and the stress intensity factors at crack tips, plays an important role in improving the structural design for safety. In this paper, the smoothed finite element method (SFEM) is used for finding upper and lower bounds on the local quantities of interest that are outputs of the displacement field for linear elasticity problems, based on bounds on strain energy in both the primal and dual problems. One important feature of SFEM is that it bounds the strain energy of the structure from above without needing the solutions of different subproblems that are based on elements or patches but only requires the direct finite element computation. Upper and lower bounds on two linear outputs and one quadratic output related with elasticity—the local reaction, the local displacement and the J‐integral—are computed by the proposed method in two different examples. Some issues with SFEM that remain to be resolved are also discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel hybrid FS‐FEM/SEA for the analysis of vibro‐acoustic problems

Predicting the frequency response of a complex vibro‐acoustic system becomes extremely difficult in the mid‐frequency regime. In this work, a novel hybrid face‐based smoothed finite element method/statistical energy analysis (FS‐FEM/SEA) method is proposed, aiming to further improve the accuracy of ‘mid‐frequency’ predictions. According to this approach, the whole vibro‐acoustic system is divided into a combination of a plate subsystem with statistical behaviour and an acoustic cavity subsystem with deterministic behaviour. The plate subsystem is treated using the recently developed FS‐FEM, and the cavity subsystem is dealt with using the SEA. These two different types of subsystems can be coupled and interacted through the so‐called diffuse field reciprocity relation. The ensemble average response of the system is calculated, and the uncertainty is confined and treated in the SEA subsystems. The use of FS‐FEM ‘softens’ the well‐known ‘overly stiff’ behaviour in the standard FEM and reduces the inherent numerical dispersion error. The proposed FS‐FEM/SEA approach is verified and its features are examined by various numerical examples. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dispersion error reduction for acoustic problems using the edge‐based smoothed finite element method (ES‐FEM)

The paper reports a detailed analysis on the numerical dispersion error in solving 2D acoustic problems governed by the Helmholtz equation using the edge‐based smoothed finite element method (ES‐FEM), in comparison with the standard FEM. It is found that the dispersion error of the standard FEM for solving acoustic problems is essentially caused by the ‘overly stiff’ feature of the discrete model. In such an ‘overly stiff’ FEM model, the wave propagates with an artificially higher ‘numerical’ speed, and hence the numerical wave‐number becomes significantly smaller than the actual exact one. Owing to the proper softening effects provided naturally by the edge‐based gradient smoothing operations, the ES‐FEM model, however, behaves much softer than the standard FEM model, leading to the so‐called very ‘close‐to‐exact’ stiffness. Therefore the ES‐FEM can naturally and effectively reduce the dispersion error in the numerical solution in solving acoustic problems. Results of both theoretical and numerical studies will support these important findings. It is shown clearly that the ES‐FEM suits ideally well for solving acoustic problems governed by the Helmholtz equations, because of the crucial effectiveness in reducing the dispersion error in the discrete numerical model. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Smoothed Finite Element Method for Mechanics Problems

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.     

Analysis of functionally graded plates using an edge-based smoothed finite element method

An edge-based smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) with stabilized discrete shear gap (DSG) technique using triangular meshes (ES-DSG) was recently proposed to enhance the accuracy of the existing FEM with the DSG for analysis of isotropic Reissner/Mindlin plates. In this paper, the ES-DSG is further formulated for static, free vibration and buckling analyses of functionally graded material (FGM) plates. The thermal and mechanical properties of FGM plates are assumed to vary across the thickness of the plate by a simple power rule of the volume fractions of the constituents. In the ES-DSG, the stiffness matrices are obtained by using the strain smoothing technique over the smoothing domains associated with the edges of the elements. The present formulation uses only linear approximations and its implementation into finite element programs is quite simple. Several numerical examples are given to demonstrate the performance of the present formulation for FGM plates.     

Finite element response sensitivity analysis using force‐based frame models

This paper presents a method to compute consistent response sensitivities of force‐based finite element models of structural frame systems to both material constitutive and discrete loading parameters. It has been shown that force‐based frame elements are superior to classical displacement‐based elements in the sense that they enable, at no significant additional costs, a drastic reduction in the number of elements required for a given level of accuracy in the computed response of the finite element model. This advantage of force‐based elements is of even more interest in structural reliability analysis, which requires accurate and efficient computation of structural response and structural response sensitivities. This paper focuses on material non‐linearities in the context of both static and dynamic response analysis. The formulation presented herein assumes the use of a general‐purpose non‐linear finite element analysis program based on the direct stiffness method. It is based on the general so‐called direct differentiation method (DDM) for computing response sensitivities. The complete analytical formulation is presented at the element level and details are provided about its implementation in a general‐purpose finite element analysis program. The new formulation and its implementation are validated through some application examples, in which analytical response sensitivities are compared with their counterparts obtained using forward finite difference (FFD) analysis. The force‐based finite element methodology augmented with the developed procedure for analytical response sensitivity computation offers a powerful general tool for structural response sensitivity analysis. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Immersed smoothed finite element method for two dimensional fluid–structure interaction problems

A novel method called immersed smoothed FEM using three‐node triangular element is proposed for two‐dimensional fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problems with largely deformable nonlinear solids placed within incompressible viscous fluid. The fluid flows are solved using the semi‐implicit characteristic‐based split method. Smoothed FEMs are employed to calculate the transient responses of solids based on explicit time integration. The fictitious fluid with two assumptions is introduced to achieve the continuous form of the FSI conditions. The discrete formulations to calculate the FSI forces are obtained in terms of the characteristic‐based split scheme, and the algorithm based on a set of fictitious fluid mesh is proposed for evaluating the FSI force exerted on the solid. The accuracy, stability, and convergence properties of immersed smoothed FEM are verified by numerical examples. Investigations on the mesh size ratio indicate that the stability is fairly independent of the wide range of the mesh size ratio. No additional volume correction is required to satisfy the incompressible constraints. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extended finite element method coupled with face‐based strain smoothing technique for three‐dimensional fracture problems

In this work, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is for the first time coupled with face‐based strain‐smoothing technique to solve three‐dimensional fracture problems. This proposed method, which is called face‐based smoothed XFEM here, is expected to combine both the advantages of XFEM and strain‐smoothing technique. In XFEM, arbitrary crack geometry can be modeled and crack advance can be simulated without remeshing. Strain‐smoothing technique can eliminate the integration of singular term over the volume around the crack front, thanks to the transformation of volume integration into area integration. Special smoothing scheme is implemented in the crack front smoothing domain. Three examples are presented to test the accuracy, efficiency, and convergence rate of the face‐based smoothed XFEM. From the results, it is clear that smoothing technique can improve the performance of XFEM for three‐dimensional fracture problems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A quasi‐static crack growth simulation based on the singular ES‐FEM

In the edge‐based smoothed finite element method (ES‐FEM), one needs only the assumed displacement values (not the derivatives) on the boundary of the edge‐based smoothing domains to compute the stiffness matrix of the system. Adopting this important feature, a five‐node crack‐tip element is employed in this paper to produce a proper stress singularity near the crack tip based on a basic mesh of linear triangular elements that can be generated automatically for problems with complicated geometries. The singular ES‐FEM is then formulated and used to simulate the crack propagation in various settings, using a largely coarse mesh with a few layers of fine mesh near the crack tip. The results demonstrate that the singular ES‐FEM is much more accurate than X‐FEM and the existing FEM. Moreover, the excellent agreement between numerical results and the reference observations shows that the singular ES‐FEM offers an efficient and high‐quality solution for crack propagation problems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.