EXTENSION OF THE ZIENKIEWICZ–ZHU ERROR ESTIMATOR TO SHAPE SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS

The application of the Zienkiewicz–Zhu estimator was extended to the estimation of the discretization error arising from shape sensitivity analysis using the finite element method. The sensitivity error was quantified from the sensitivity of the energy norm by using an estimator specially developed for this purpose. Sensitivity analyses were carried out using the discrete analytical approach, which introduced no additional errors other than the discretization error. In this work, direct nodal averaging was used for linear triangular elements and the SPR technique for quadratic elements in order to obtain the smoothed stress and sensitivities fields. Two examples with an exact solution are used to analyse the effectivity of the proposed estimator and its convergence with the h-adaptive refinement. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTIONS FOR PREDICTED NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL ELASTIC SOLID VIBRATION PROBLEMS IN FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

In order to assess the discretization error of a finite element solution, asymptotic solutions for predicted natural frequencies of two-dimensional elastic solid vibration problems in the finite element analysis are presented in this paper. Since the asymptotic solution is more accurate than the original finite element solution, it can be viewed as an alternative solution against which the original finite element solution can be compared. Consequently, the discretization error of the finite element solution can be evaluated. Due to the existence of two kinds of two-dimensional problems in engineering practice, both the plane stress problem and the plane strain problem have been considered and the corresponding asymptotic formulae for predicted natural frequencies of two-dimensional solids by the finite element method have been derived from the fact that a discretized finite element system approaches a continuous one if the finite element size approaches zero. It has been demonstrated, from the related numerical results of three examples, that the present asymptotic solution, which can be obtained by simply using the corresponding formula without any further finite element calculation, is indeed more accurate than the original finite element solution so that it can be considered as a kind of corrected solution for the discretization error estimation of a finite element solution.     

Refined h-adaptive finite element procedure for large deformation geotechnical problems

Adaptive finite element procedures automatically refine, coarsen, or relocate elements in a finite element mesh to obtain a solution with a specified accuracy. Although a significant amount of research has been devoted to adaptive finite element analysis, this method has not been widely applied to nonlinear geotechnical problems due to their complexity. In this paper, the h-adaptive finite element technique is employed to solve some complex geotechnical problems involving material nonlinearity and large deformations. The key components of h-adaptivity including robust mesh generation algorithms, error estimators and remapping procedures are discussed. This paper includes a brief literature review as well as formulation and implementation details of the h-adaptive technique. Finally, the method is used to solve some classical geotechnical problems and results are provided to illustrate the performance of the method.     

Towards automatic adaptive geometrically non-linear shell analysis. Part I: Implementation of an h-adaptive mesh refinement procedure

Effective methods leading to automated adaptive numerical solutions to geometrically non-linear shell-type problems are studied in this work. In particular, procedures for improving the accuracy, the reliability and the computational efficiency of the finite element solutions are of primary interest here. This is addressed using h-adaptive mesh refinement based on a posteriori error estimation, self-adaptive methods in global incremental/iterative processes, as well as smart algorithms and heuristic approaches based on methods of knowledge engineering. Seemless integration of h-adaptive finite element methods with adaptive step-length control makes it possible to maintain a prescribed accuracy while maintaining the solution efficiency without user intervention throughout the process of a non-linear analysis. Several examples illustrate the merit and potential of the approach studied herein and confirm the feasibility of developing an automatic adaptive environment for geometrically non-linear analysis of shell structures.     

有限元网格修正的自适应分析及其应用

本文在对有限元变量连续条件分析的基础上，将应力误差范数用于计算结果的误差估计，使非结构化网格生成系统与有限元计算有机地结合起来，并将网格单元修正的自适应分析应用于二维应力集中问题的研究，从而实现了有限元最佳化离散，提高了有限元数值求解的可靠性和近似程度。     

梯度复合材料应力强度因子计算的梯度扩展单元法

推导了一种适用于梯度复合材料断裂特性分析的梯度扩展单元, 采用细观力学方法描述材料变化的物理属性, 通过线性插值位移场给出了4节点梯度扩展元随空间位置变化的刚度矩阵, 并建立了结构的连续梯度有限元模型。通过将梯度单元的计算结果与均匀单元以及已有文献结果进行对比, 证明了梯度扩展有限元(XFEM)的优越性, 并进一步讨论了材料参数对裂纹尖端应力强度因子(SIF)的影响规律。研究结果表明: 随着网格密度的增加, 梯度单元的计算结果能够迅速收敛于准确解, 均匀单元的计算误差不会随着网格细化而消失, 且随着裂纹长度和属性梯度的增大而增大; 属性梯度和涂层基体厚度比的增大导致涂覆型梯度材料的SIF增大; 裂纹长度的增加和连接层基体厚度比的减小均导致连接型梯度材料的SIF增大。     

A posteriori error estimates and adaptivity for finite element solutions in finite elasticity

Methods for a posteriori error estimation for finite element solutions are well established and widely used in engineering practice for linear boundary value problems. In contrast here we are concerned with finite elasticity and error estimation and adaptivity in this context. In the paper a brief outline of continuum theory of finite elasticity is first given. Using the residuals in the equilibrium conditions the discretization error of the finite element solution is estimated both locally and globally. The proposed error estimator is physically interpreted in the energy sense. We then present and discuss the convergence behaviour of the discretization error in uniformly and adaptively refined finite element sequences.     

时间自适应在海洋平台桩靴上拔模拟中的应用

该文通过模型试验和时间自适应有限元分析的方法模拟了海洋平台桩靴的上拔过程。在有限元数值分析中引入了启发式和基于误差评估的两种时间自适应方法,有效解决了因时间步长的选取而引起的不收敛和计算效率低等问题。启发式算法通过控制收敛速度调整时间步长,有效预防了不收敛或收敛过慢,但时步调整较为粗糙。基于误差评估的时间自适应有效控制了计算误差,能够平滑地调整时间步长,相比于启发式算法更具有精确性和稳定性。通过试验和数值方法得出海洋平台在上拔桩靴时需克服海床土体吸附力,采用时间自适应方法可以高效模拟桩靴位移时程的非线性问题。     

Finite volume method for stress analysis in complex domains

In this paper an alternative to the widely used finite element method for the solution of stress analysis problems is presented. The method employs a finite volume discretization of solid body equilibrium equation written in an integral form with displacement vector as a dependent variable in conjunction with an efficient iterative procedure for the solution of resulting algebraic equations. It uses unstructured meshes with arbitrary cell topology, which greatly facilitates the solution domain discretization. The method is verified on a number of test cases and it is shown to possess all the geometrical flexibility of the finite element methods and the simplicity and efficiency of the finite volume methods.     

Smart element method I. The Zienkiewicz–Zhu feedback

A new error control finite element formulation is developed and implemented based on the variational multiscale method, the inclusion theory in homogenization, and the Zienkiewicz–Zhu error estimator. By synthesizing variational multiscale method in computational mechanics, the equivalent eigenstrain principle in micromechanics, and the Zienkiewicz–Zhu error estimator in the finite element method (FEM), the new finite element formulation can automatically detect and subsequently homogenize its own discretization errors in a self‐adaptive and a self‐adjusting manner. It is the first finite element formulation that combines an optimal feedback mechanism and a precisely defined homogenization procedure to reduce its own discretization errors and hence to control numerical pollutions. The paper focuses on the following two issues: (1) how to combine a multiscale method with the existing finite element error estimate criterion through a feedback mechanism, and (2) convergence study. It has been shown that by combining the proposed variational multiscale homogenization method with the Zienkiewicz–Zhu error estimator a clear improvement can be made on the coarse scale computation. It is also shown that when the finite element mesh is refined, the solution obtained by the variational eigenstrain multiscale method will converge to the exact solution. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extraction of stress intensity factors from generalized finite element solutions

The performance of several superconvergent techniques to extract stress intensity factors (SIFs) from numerical solutions computed with the generalized finite element method is investigated. The contour integral, the cutoff function and the J-integral methods are considered. An implementation of the extraction techniques based on a sequence of mappings that are independent of the underlying solution method or discretization is proposed. It is shown that this approach is suitable for virtually any mesh-free or mesh-based solution method. Several numerical examples demonstrating the convergence of the computed SIF and the flexibility of the proposed implementation are presented. The path independence of the extraction methods is also investigated. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the contour integral and the cutoff function methods are more robust than the J–integral method with the CFM being the most accurate.     

A BENCHMARK COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF FINITE ELEMENT ERROR ESTIMATION

Benchmark solutions are presented for a simple linear elastic boundary value problem, as analysed using a range of finite element mesh configurations. For each configuration, various estimates of local (i.e. element) and global discretization error have been computed. These show that the optimal mesh corresponds not only to minimization of global energy (or L₂) norms of the error, but also to equalization of element errors as well. Hence, this demonstrates why element error equalization proves successful as a criterion for guiding the process of mesh refinement in mesh adaptivity. The results also demonstrate the effectiveness of the stress projection method for smoothing discontinuous stress fields which, for this investigation, are more extreme as a consequence of the assumption of nearly incompressible material behaviour. In this case, lower order smoothing produces a continuous stress field which is in close agreement with the exact solution.     

Some benchmark problems and basic ideas on the accuracy of boundary element analysis

Taken the linear elasticity problems as examples, some benchmark problems are presented to investigate the influence of calculation error and discretization error on the accuracy of boundary element analysis. For the conventional boundary element analysis based on singular kernel function of fundamental solution and using Gaussian elimination method, the main calculation error comes from the integration of kernel and shape function product on each element. Based on some benchmark problems of “simple problem” without discretization error, it can be observed that sometimes a large number of integration points in Gaussian quadrature should be adopted. To guarantee the integration accuracy reliably, an improved adaptive Gaussian quadrature approach is presented and verified. The main error of boundary element analysis is the discretization error, provided the calculation error has been reduced effectively. Based on some benchmark problems, it can be observed that for the bending problems both the constant and linear element are not efficient, the quadratic element with a reasonable refined mesh is required to guarantee the accuracy of boundary element analysis. An error indicator to guide the mesh refinement in the convergence test towards the converged accurate results based on the distribution of boundary effective stress is presented and verified.     

ERROR ESTIMATION AND ADAPTIVITY IN ELASTOPLASTICITY

In this paper, a method is developed to control the parameters of a finite element computation for time-dependent material models. This method allows the user to obtain a prescribed accuracy with a computational cost as low as possible. To evaluate discretization errors, we use a global error measure in constitutive relation based on Drucker's inequality. This error includes, over the studied time interval, the error of the finite element model and the error of the algorithm being used. In order to master the size of the elements of the mesh and the length of the time increments, an error estimator, which permits estimating the errors due to the time discretization, is proposed. These tools are used to elaborate two procedures of adaptivity. Various examples for monotonous or non-monotonous loadings, for 2-D or axisymmetric problems, show the reliability of these procedures.     

Error-controlled adaptive mixed finite element methods for second-order elliptic equations

In this contribution, we deal with a posteriori error estimates and adaptivity for mixed finite element discretizations of second-order elliptic equations, which are applied to the Poisson equation. The method proposed is an extension to the one recently introduced in [10] to the case of inhomogeneous Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. The residual-type a posteriori error estimator presented in this paper relies on a postprocessed and therefore improved solution for the displacement field which can be computed locally, i.e. on the element level. Furthermore, it is shown that this discontinuous postprocessed solution can be further improved by an averaging technique. With these improved solutions at hand, both upper and lower bounds on the finite element discretization error can be obtained. Emphasis is placed in this paper on the numerical examples that illustrate our theoretical results.     

Generalized finite element method in structural nonlinear analysis – a <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-adaptive strategy

This paper is concerned with an extension of the generalized finite element method, GFEM, to nonlinear analysis and to the proposition of a p-adaptive strategy. The p-adaptivity is considered due to the nodal enrichment scheme of the method. Here, such scheme consists of multiplying the partition of unity functions by a set of polynomials. In a first part, the performance of the method in nonlinear analysis of a reinforced concrete beam with progressive damage is presented. The adaptive strategy is then proposed on basis of a control over the approximation error. Aiming to estimate the approximation error, the equilibrated element residual method is adapted to the GFEM and to the nonlinear approach. Then, global and local error measures are defined. A numerical example is presented outlining the effectivity index of the error estimator proposed. Finally, a p-adaptive procedure is described and its good performance is illustrated by a numerical example.The authors gratefully acknowledge the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientìifico e Tecnológico (CNPq) at Brazil.     

Calibration of a class of non-linear viscoelasticity models with adaptive error control

The calibration of constitutive models is considered as an optimization problem where parameter values are sought to minimize the discrepancy between measured and simulated response. Since a finite element method is used to solve an underlying state equation, discretization errors arise, which induce errors in the calibrated parameter values. In this paper, adaptive mesh refinement based on the pertinent dual solution is used in order to reduce discretization errors in the calibrated material parameters. By a sensitivity assessment, the influence from uncertainties in experimental data is estimated, which serves as a threshold under which there is no need to further reduce the discretization error. The adaptive strategy is employed to calibrate a viscoelasticity model with observed data from uniaxial compression (i.e., homogeneous stress state), where the FE-discretization in time is studied. The a posteriori error estimations show an acceptable quality in terms of effectivity measures.     

A posteriori estimates of the solution error caused by discretization in the finite element,finite difference and boundary element methods

A theory is described which guarantees an upper and lower bound estimate of the discretization error in numerical solutions of elliptic boundary value problems. This method gives bounded global estimates of the error in the energy norm. Pointwise estimates of the error in the solution variable or its derivatives can then be obtained if the numerical solution is exhibiting pointwise monotonic convergence. The versatility of this method is illustrated by its application to numerical solutions from finite element, finite difference and boundary element methods.     

Strict and effective bounds in goal‐oriented error estimation applied to fracture mechanics problems solved with XFEM

In this work, we analyze a method that leads to strict and high‐quality local error bounds in the context of fracture mechanics. We investigate in particular the capability of this method to evaluate the discretization error for quantities of interest computed using the extended finite element method (XFEM). The goal‐oriented error estimation method we are focusing on uses the concept of constitutive relation error along with classical extraction techniques. The main innovation in this paper resides in the methodology employed to construct admissible fields in the XFEM framework, which involves enrichments with singular and level set basis functions. We show that this construction can be performed through a generalization of the classical procedure used for the standard finite element method. Thus, the resulting goal‐oriented error estimation method leads to relevant and very accurate information on quantities of interest that are specific to fracture mechanics, such as mixed‐mode stress intensity factors. The technical aspects and the effectiveness of the method are illustrated through two‐dimensional numerical examples. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of virtual crack closure integral method for interface cracks in low-k integrated circuit devices under thermal load

The virtual crack closure integral (VCCI) method is used to evaluate the stress intensity factor (SIF) and energy release rate (ERR) of an interface crack under thermal load. The VCCIs used in this work include the traditionally known “Mode I” and “Mode II” VCCIs and an additional coupling VCCI. The singularity element is used in the finite element method (FEM) implementation. The SIF and ERR calculated by the FEM are compared to the exact solution in the case of a joint dissimilar semi-infinite plates with double edge crack under thermal loading. The FEM result agrees well with the exact solution for relatively coarse meshes. The contribution of the mesh density and material mismatch to the FEM error is also explored. The VCCI method is used with the multi-scale FEM in a delamination risk assessment of a low-k integrated circuits device in flip-chip plastic ball grid array packages. The ERR is calculated for different package configurations and the prediction of the delamination risk is confirmed by reliability tests.