A minimal remeshing finite element method for crack growth is presented. Discontinuous enrichment functions are added to the finite element approximation to account for the presence of the crack. This method allows the crack to be arbitrarily aligned within the mesh. For severely curved cracks, remeshing may be needed but only away from the crack tip where remeshing is much easier. Results are presented for a wide range of two-dimensional crack problems showing excellent accuracy. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Elastic crack growth in finite elements with minimal remeshing

Meshless methods: An overview and recent developments

A local symmetric weak form (LSWF) for linear potential problems is developed, and a truly meshless method, based on the LSWF and the moving least squares approximation, is presented for solving potential problems with high accuracy. The essential boundary conditions in the present formulation are imposed by a penalty method. The present method does not need a “finite element mesh”, either for purposes of interpolation of the solution variables, or for the integration of the “energy”. All integrals can be easily evaluated over regularly shaped domains (in general, spheres in three-dimensional problems) and their boundaries. No post-smoothing technique is required for computing the derivatives of the unknown variable, since the original solution, using the moving least squares approximation, is already smooth enough. Several numerical examples are presented in the paper. In the example problems dealing with Laplace & Poisson's equations, high rates of convergence with mesh refinement for the Sobolev norms ||·||0 and ||·||1 have been found, and the values of the unknown variable and its derivatives are quite accurate. In essence, the present meshless method based on the LSWF is found to be a simple, efficient, and attractive method with a great potential in engineering applications.

A new Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) approach in computational mechanics

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is a meshfree particle method based on Lagrangian formulation, and has been widely applied to different areas in engineering and science. This paper presents an overview on the SPH method and its recent developments, including (1) the need for meshfree particle methods, and advantages of SPH, (2) approximation schemes of the conventional SPH method and numerical techniques for deriving SPH formulations for partial differential equations such as the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations, (3) the role of the smoothing kernel functions and a general approach to construct smoothing kernel functions, (4) kernel and particle consistency for the SPH method, and approaches for restoring particle consistency, (5) several important numerical aspects, and (6) some recent applications of SPH. The paper ends with some concluding remarks.

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH): an Overview and Recent Developments

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01461938/document

Extended finite element method for cohesive crack growth

A procedure is developed for coupling meshless methods such as the element-free Galerkin method with finite element methods. The coupling is developed so that continuity and consistency are preserved on the interface elements. Results are presented for both elastostatic and elastodynamic problems, including a problem with crack growth.

A coupled finite element-element-free Galerkin method

Continuous meshless approximations are developed for domains with non-convex boundaries, with emphasis on cracks. Two techniques are developed in the context of the element-free Galerkin method: a transparency method wherein smooth approximations are generated by making boundaries partially transparent, and a diffraction method, where the domain of influence wraps around a concave boundary. They are compared to the original method based on the visibility criterion in which the approximations are discontinuous in the vicinity of nonconvex boundaries. The performance of the methods is compared using two elastostatic examples: an infinite plate with a hole and a crack problem. The continuous approximations show only moderate imporvement in accuracy over the discontinous approximations, but yield significant improvements for enhanced bases, such as crack-tip singular functions.

D. Organ

Papers

Meshless methods: An overview and recent developments

A coupled finite element-element-free Galerkin method

Continuous meshless approximations for nonconvex bodies by diffraction and transparency

Element-free Galerkin methods for dynamic fracture in concrete