Mixed finite element methods for linear elasticity with weakly imposed symmetry

In this paper, we construct new finite element methods for the approximation of the equations of linear elasticity in three space dimensions that produce direct approximations to both stresses and displacements. The methods are based on a modified form of the Hellinger-Reissner variational principle that only weakly imposes the symmetry condition on the stresses. Although this approach has been previously used by a number of authors, a key new ingredient here is a constructive derivation of the elasticity complex starting from the de Rham complex. By mimicking this construction in the discrete case, we derive new mixed finite elements for elasticity in a systematic manner from known discretizations of the de Rham complex. These elements appear to be simpler than the ones previously derived. For example, we construct stable discretizations which use only piecewise linear elements to approximate the stress field and piecewise constant functions to approximate the displacement field.

     

平面线弹性纯位移边值问题低阶非协调矩形元的Robust多重网格方法

1引 言 对于各向同性,均匀介质的平面线弹性问题,当Lamé常数λ→∞(泊松率v→0.5)时,即对于几乎不可压介质,通常的协调有限元格式的解往往不再收敛到原问题的解,或者达不到最优收敛阶,这就是所谓的闭锁现象(见[3],[7],[8]及[10]).究其原因,在通常的有限元分析中,其误差估计的系数与λ有关,当λ→∞时,该系数将趋于无穷大.因此为克服闭锁现象就需要构造特殊的有限元格式,使得当λ→∞时,有限元逼近解仍然收敛到原问题的解.     

A mixed finite element method for the unilateral contact problem in elasticity

In this paper, we provide a new mixed finite element approximation of the varia-tional inequality resulting from the unilateral contact problem in elasticity. We use the continuous piecewise P2-P1 finite element to approximate the displacement field and the normal stress component on the contact region. Optimal convergence rates are obtained under the reasonable regularity hypotheses. Numerical example verifies our results.     

Stabilized Nonconforming Mixed Finite Element Method for Linear Elasticity on Rectangular or Cubic Meshes

Based on the primal mixed variational formulation, a stabilized nonconforming mixed finite element method is proposed for the linear elasticity on rectangular and cubic meshes. Two kinds of penalty terms are introduced in the stabilized mixed formulation, which are the jump penalty term for the displacement and the divergence penalty term for the stress. We use the classical nonconforming rectangular and cubic elements for the displacement and the discontinuous piecewise polynomial space for the stress, where the discrete space for stress are carefully chosen to guarantee the well-posedness of discrete formulation. The stabilized mixed method is locking-free. The optimal convergence order is derived in the $L^2$-norm for stress and in the broken $H^1$-norm and $L^2$-norm for displacement. A numerical test is carried out to verify the optimal convergence of the stabilized method.     

Rectangular mixed elements for elasticity with weakly imposed symmetry condition

We present new rectangular mixed finite elements for linear elasticity. The approach is based on a modification of the Hellinger–Reissner functional in which the symmetry of the stress field is enforced weakly through the introduction of a Lagrange multiplier. The elements are analogues of the lowest order elements described in Arnold et al. (Math Comput 76:1699–1723, 2007). Piecewise constants are used to approximate the displacement and the rotation. The first order BDM elements are used to approximate each row of the stress field.     

Symmetric and conforming mixed finite elements for plane elasticity using rational bubble functions

We construct stable, conforming and symmetric finite elements for the mixed formulation of the linear elasticity problem in two dimensions. In our approach we add three divergence-free rational functions to piecewise polynomials to form the stress finite element space. The relation with the elasticity elements and a class of generalized $C^1$ Zienkiewicz elements is also discussed.     

A mixed nonconforming finite element for linear elasticity

This article considers a mixed finite element method for linear elasticity. It is based on a modified mixed formulation that enforces the continuity of the stress weakly by adding a jump term of the approximated stress on interior edges. The symmetric stress are approximated by nonconforming linear elements and the displacement by piecewise constants. We establish ??(h) error bound in the (broken) L² norm for the divergence of the stress and ??(h) error bound in the L² norm for both the displacement and the stress tensor. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005.     

Analysis of a finite element method for pressure/potential formulation of elastoacoustic spectral problems

A finite element method to approximate the vibration modes of a structure enclosing an acoustic fluid is analyzed. The fluid is described by using simultaneously pressure and displacement potential variables, whereas displacement variables are used for the solid. A mathematical analysis of the continuous spectral problem is given. The problem is discretized on a simplicial mesh by using piecewise constant elements for the pressure and continuous piecewise linear finite elements for the other fields. Error estimates are settled for approximate eigenvalues and eigenfrequencies. Finally, implementation issues are discussed.

     

An augmented mixed finite element method for 3D linear elasticity problems

In this paper we introduce and analyze a new augmented mixed finite element method for linear elasticity problems in 3D. Our approach is an extension of a technique developed recently for plane elasticity, which is based on the introduction of consistent terms of Galerkin least-squares type. We consider non-homogeneous and homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions and prove that the resulting augmented variational formulations lead to strongly coercive bilinear forms. In this way, the associated Galerkin schemes become well posed for arbitrary choices of the corresponding finite element subspaces. In particular, Raviart-Thomas spaces of order 0 for the stress tensor, continuous piecewise linear elements for the displacement, and piecewise constants for the rotation can be utilized. Moreover, we show that in this case the number of unknowns behaves approximately as 9.5 times the number of elements (tetrahedrons) of the triangulation, which is cheaper, by a factor of 3, than the classical PEERS in 3D. Several numerical results illustrating the good performance of the augmented schemes are provided.     

Mixed finite elements for elasticity

Summary. There have been many efforts, dating back four decades, to develop stable mixed finite elements for the stress-displacement formulation of the plane elasticity system. This requires the development of a compatible pair of finite element spaces, one to discretize the space of symmetric tensors in which the stress field is sought, and one to discretize the space of vector fields in which the displacement is sought. Although there are number of well-known mixed finite element pairs known for the analogous problem involving vector fields and scalar fields, the symmetry of the stress field is a substantial additional difficulty, and the elements presented here are the first ones using polynomial shape functions which are known to be stable. We present a family of such pairs of finite element spaces, one for each polynomial degree, beginning with degree two for the stress and degree one for the displacement, and show stability and optimal order approximation. We also analyze some obstructions to the construction of such finite element spaces, which account for the paucity of elements available. Received January 10, 2001 / Published online November 15, 2001     

Finite elements for symmetric tensors in three dimensions

We construct finite element subspaces of the space of symmetric tensors with square-integrable divergence on a three-dimensional domain. These spaces can be used to approximate the stress field in the classical Hellinger-Reissner mixed formulation of the elasticty equations, when standard discontinuous finite element spaces are used to approximate the displacement field. These finite element spaces are defined with respect to an arbitrary simplicial triangulation of the domain, and there is one for each positive value of the polynomial degree used for the displacements. For each degree, these provide a stable finite element discretization. The construction of the spaces is closely tied to discretizations of the elasticity complex and can be viewed as the three-dimensional analogue of the triangular element family for plane elasticity previously proposed by Arnold and Winther.

     

An adaptive least squares mixed finite element method for the stress‐displacement formulation of linear elasticity

A least‐squares mixed finite element method for linear elasticity, based on a stress‐displacement formulation, is investigated in terms of computational efficiency. For the stress approximation quadratic Raviart‐Thomas elements are used and these are coupled with the quadratic nonconforming finite element spaces of Fortin and Soulie for approximating the displacement. The local evaluation of the least‐squares functional serves as an a posteriori error estimator to be used in an adaptive refinement algorithm. We present computational results for a benchmark test problem of planar elasticity including nearly incompressible material parameters in order to verify the effectiveness of our adaptive strategy. For comparison, conforming quadratic finite elements are also used for the displacement approximation showing convergence orders similar to the nonconforming case, which are, however, not independent of the Lamé parameters. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005     

Finite Element Systems for Vector Bundles: Elasticity and Curvature

We develop a theory of finite element systems, for the purpose of discretizing sections of vector bundles, in particular those arising in the theory of elasticity. In the presence of curvature, we prove a discrete Bianchi identity. In the flat case, we prove a de Rham theorem on cohomology groups. We check that some known mixed finite elements for the stress–displacement formulation of elasticity fit our framework. We also define, in dimension two, the first conforming finite element spaces of metrics with good linearized curvature, corresponding to strain tensors with Saint-Venant compatibility conditions. Cochains with coefficients in rigid motions are given a key role in relating continuous and discrete elasticity complexes.

     

对流扩散方程的稳定化流线扩散法最小二乘非协调有限元分析

将最小二乘法和稳定化的流线扩散法相结合,研究了对流扩散方程的非协调有限元格式,用矩形EQ_1~(rot)元和零阶R-T元分别来逼近位移和应力,利用单元本身的特殊性质,证明了离散格式解的存在惟一性,得到了位移H~1-模和应力H(div)-模的最优误差估计.     

Stabilized dual-mixed method for the problem of linear elasticity with mixed boundary conditions

We extend the applicability of the augmented dual-mixed method introduced recently in Gatica (2007), Gatica et al. (2009) to the problem of linear elasticity with mixed boundary conditions. The method is based on the Hellinger–Reissner principle and the symmetry of the stress tensor is imposed in a weak sense. The Neumann boundary condition is prescribed in the finite element space. Then, suitable Galerkin least-squares type terms are added in order to obtain an augmented variational formulation which is coercive in the whole space. This allows to use any finite element subspaces to approximate the displacement, the Cauchy stress tensor and the rotation.     

弱有限元方法在线弹性问题中的应用

本文考虑弱有限元（简称WG）方法在线弹性问题中的应用.WG方法是传统有限元方法的推广,用于偏微分方程的数值求解.和传统有限元一样,它的基本思想源于变分原理.WG方法的特点是使用在剖分单元内部和剖分单元边界上分别有定义的分片多项式函数（即弱函数）作为近似函数来逼近真解,并针对弱函数定义相应的弱微分算子代入数值格式进行计算.除此之外,WG方法允许在数值格式中引进稳定子以实现近似函数的弱连续性.WG方法具有允许使用任意多边形或多面体剖分,数值格式与逼近函数构造简单,易于满足相应的稳定性条件等优点.本文考虑WG方法在求解线弹性问题中的应用.围绕线弹性问题数值求解中常见的三个问题,即：数值格式的强制性,闭锁性,应力张量的对称性介绍WG方法在线弹性问题求解中的应用.     

Towards a unified analysis of mixed methods for elasticity with weakly symmetric stress

We propose a framework for unified analysis of mixed methods for elasticity with weakly symmetric stress. Based on a commuting diagram in the weakly symmetric elasticity complex and extending a previous stability result, stable mixed methods are obtained by combining Stokes stable and elasticity stable finite elements. We show that the framework can be used to analyze most existing mixed methods for the linear elasticity problem with elementary techniques. We also show that some new stable mixed finite elements are obtained.     

Mixed finite element methods for unilateral problems: convergence analysis and numerical studies

In this paper, we propose and study different mixed variational methods in order to approximate with finite elements the unilateral problems arising in contact mechanics. The discretized unilateral conditions at the candidate contact interface are expressed by using either continuous piecewise linear or piecewise constant Lagrange multipliers in the saddle-point formulation. A priori error estimates are established and several numerical studies corresponding to the different choices of the discretized unilateral conditions are achieved.

     

Finite Element Approximations of Symmetric Tensors on Simplicial Grids in $\mathbb{R}^n$: The Higher Order Case

The design of mixed finite element methods in linear elasticity with symmetric stress approximations has been a longstanding open problem until Arnold and Winther designed the first family of mixed finite elements where the discrete stress space is the space of $H(div, Ω\;\mathbb{S}) — P_{k+1}$ tensors whose divergence is a $P_{k-1}$ polynomial on each triangle for $k$ ≥ 2. Such a two dimensional family was extended, by Arnold, Awanou and Winther, to a three dimensional family of mixed elements where the discrete stress space is the space of $H(div, Ω\;\mathbb{S}) — P_{k+2}$ tensors, whose divergence is a $P_{k-1}$ polynomial on each tetrahedron for $k$ ≥ 2. In this paper, we are able to construct, in a unified fashion, mixed finite element methods with symmetric stress approximations on an arbitrary simplex in $\mathbb{R}^n$ for any space dimension. On the contrary, the discrete stress space here is the space of $H(div, Ω\;\mathbb{S}) — P_k$ tensors, and the discrete displacement space here is the space of $L²(Ω ; \mathbb{R}^n) — P_{k-1}$ vectors for $k ≥ n$+1. These finite element spaces are defined with respect to an arbitrary simplicial triangulation of the domain, and can be regarded as extensions to any dimension of those in two and three dimensions by Hu and Zhang.     

Some remarks on the constant in the strengthened CBS inequality: Estimate for hierarchical finite element discretizations of elasticity problems

For a class of two‐dimensional boundary value problems including diffusion and elasticity problems, it is proved that the constants in the corresponding strengthened Cauchy‐Buniakowski‐Schwarz (CBS) inequality in the cases of two‐level hierarchical piecewise‐linear/piecewise‐linear and piecewise‐linear/piecewise‐quadratic finite element discretizations with triangular meshes differ by the factor 0.75. For plane linear elasticity problems and triangulations with right isosceles triangles, formulas are presented that show the dependence of the constant in the CBS inequality on the Poisson's ratio. Furthermore, numerically determined bounds of the constant in the CBS inequality are given for plane linear elasticity problems discretized by means of arbitrary triangles and for three‐dimensional elasticity problems discretized by means of tetrahedral elements. Finally, the robustness of iterative solvers for elasticity problems is discussed briefly. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 469–487, 1999