Showing papers by "Sundararajan Natarajan published in 2010"

Integrating strong and weak discontinuities without integration subcells and example applications in an XFEM/GFEM framework

Abstract: Partition of unity methods, such as the extended finite element method, allows discontinuities to be simulated independently of the mesh (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 1999; 45:601-620). This eliminates the need for the mesh to be aligned with the discontinuity or cumbersome re-meshing, as the discontinuity evolves. However, to compute the stiffness matrix of the elements intersected by the discontinuity, a subdivision of the elements into quadrature subcells aligned with the discontinuity is commonly adopted. In this paper, we use a simple integration technique, proposed for polygonal domains (Int. J. Nuttier Meth. Engng 2009; 80(1):103-134. DOI: 10.1002/nme.2589) to suppress the need for element subdivision. Numerical results presented for a few benchmark problems in the context of linear elastic fracture mechanics and a multi-material problem show that the proposed method yields accurate results. Owing to its simplicity, the proposed integration technique can be easily integrated in any existing code. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

On the approximation in the smoothed finite element method (SFEM)

Abstract: This letter aims at resolving the issues raised in the recent short communication (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2008; 76(8):1285–1295. DOI: 10.1002/nme.2460) and answered by (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2009; DOI: 10.1002/nme.2587) by proposing a systematic approximation scheme based on non-mapped shape functions, which both allows to fully exploit the unique advantages of the smoothed finite element method (SFEM) (Comput. Mech. 2007; 39(6):859–877. DOI: 10.1007/s00466-006-0075-4; Commun. Numer. Meth. Engng 2009; 25(1):19–34. DOI: 10.1002/cnm.1098; Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2007; 71(8):902–930; Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engng 2008; 198(2):165–177. DOI: 10.1016/j.cma.2008.05.029; Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engng 2007; submitted; Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2008; 74(2):175–208. DOI: 10.1002/nme.2146; Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engng 2008; 197 (13–16):1184–1203. DOI: 10.1016/j.cma.2007.10.008) and resolve the existence, linearity and positivity deficiencies pointed out in (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2008; 76(8):1285–1295). We show that Wachspress interpolants (A Rational Basis for Function Approximation. Academic Press, Inc.: New York, 1975) computed in the physical coordinate system are very well suited to the SFEM, especially when elements are heavily distorted (obtuse interior angles). The proposed approximation leads to results that are almost identical to those of the SFEM initially proposed in (Comput. Mech. 2007; 39(6):859–877. DOI: 10.1007/s00466-006-0075-4). These results suggest that the proposed approximation scheme forms a strong and rigorous basis for the construction of SFEMs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

On numerical integration of discontinuous approximations in partition of unity finite elements

Abstract: This contribution presents two advances in the formulation of discontinuous approximations in finite elements. The first method relies on Schwarz-Christoffel mapping for integration on arbitrary polygonal domains [1]. When an element is split into two subdomains by a piecewise continuous discontinuity, each of these polygonal domains is mapped onto a unit disk on which cubature rules are utilized. This suppresses the need for the usual two-level isoparametric mapping. The second method relies on strain smoothing applied to discontinuous finite element approximations. By writing the strain field as a non-local weighted average of the compatible strain field, integration on the surface of the finite elements is transformed into boundary integration, so that the usual subdivision into integration cells is not required, an isoparametric mapping is not needed and the derivatives of the shape (enrichment) functions do not need to be computed. Results in fracture mechanics and composite materials are presented and both methods are compared in terms of accuracy and simplicity. The interested reader is referred to [1,6,13] for more details and should contact the authors to receive a version of the MATLAB codes used to obtain the results herein.