The problem of membrane locking in finite element analysis of cylindrical shells

Summary We analyse the problem of membrane locking in (h, p) finite element models of a thin hemicylindrical shell roof loaded by a smoothly varying normal pressure distribution. We show that in the standard finite element method, locking occurs especially at low values ofp and when the finite element grid is not aligned with the axis of the cylinder. A general strategy of avoiding locking by using modified bilinear forms is introduced, and a special implementation of this strategy on aligned rectangular grids is considered.     

Design principles and error analysis for reduced-shear plate-bending finite elements

Summary. In this paper, we consider the problem of designing plate-bending elements which are free of shear locking. This phenomenon is known to afflict several elements for the Reissner-Mindlin plate model when the thickness of the plate is small, due to the inability of the approximating subspaces to satisfy the Kirchhoff constraint. To avoid locking, a “reduction operator” is often applied to the stress, to modify the variational formulation and reduce the effect of this constraint. We investigate the conditions required on such reduction operators to ensure that the approximability and consistency errors are of the right order. A set of sufficient conditions is presented, under which optimal errors can be obtained – these are derived directly, without transforming the problem via a Hemholtz decomposition, or considering it as a mixed method. Our analysis explicitly takes into account boundary layers and their resolution, and we prove, via an asymptotic analysis, that convergence of the finite element approximations will occur uniformly as , even on quasiuniform meshes. The analysis is carried out in the case of a free boundary, where the boundary layer is known to be strong. We also propose and analyze a simple post-processing scheme for the shear stress. Our general theory is used to analyze the well-known MITC elements for the Reissner-Mindlin plate. As we show, the theory makes it possible to analyze both straight and curved elements. We also analyze some other elements. Received June 19, 1995     

Approximation of a circular cylindrical shell by Clough-Johnson flat plate finite elements

Summary In this paper, we study the approximation of a right circular cylindrical shell by a nonconforming method using Clough-Johnson flat plate finite elements. Compatibility conditions which have to be satisfied by the degrees of freedom at every node of the triangulation are given. Then, we prove that convergence is insured for shallow shells when using particular families of triangulations which are practically easy to implement. Finally, we propose a new approximation method by flat plate finite elements which assures the convergence for any kind of circular cylindrical shell.     

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.     

Error estimates for a mixed finite volume method for the p-Laplacian problem

In this work we propose and analyze a mixed finite volume method for the p-Laplacian problem which is based on the lowest order Raviart–Thomas element for the vector variable and the P1 nonconforming element for the scalar variable. It is shown that this method can be reduced to a P1 nonconforming finite element method for the scalar variable only. One can then recover the vector approximation from the computed scalar approximation in a virtually cost-free manner. Optimal a priori error estimates are proved for both approximations by the quasi-norm techniques. We also derive an implicit error estimator of Bank–Weiser type which is based on the local Neumann problems.This work was supported by the Post-doctoral Fellowship Program of Korea Science & Engineering Foundation (KOSEF).     

Numerical analysis of relaxed micromagnetics by penalised finite elements

Summary. Some micromagnetic phenomena in rigid (ferro-)magnetic materials can be modelled by a non-convex minimisation problem. Typically, minimising sequences develop finer and finer oscillations and their weak limits do not attain the infimal energy. Solutions exist in a generalised sense and the observed microstructure can be described in terms of Young measures. A relaxation by convexifying the energy density resolves the essential macroscopic information. The numerical analysis of the relaxed problem faces convex but degenerated energy functionals in a setting similar to mixed finite element formulations. The lowest order conforming finite element schemes appear instable and nonconforming finite element methods are proposed. An a priori and a posteriori error analysis is presented for a penalised version of the side-restriction that the modulus of the magnetic field is bounded pointwise. Residual-based adaptive algorithms are proposed and experimentally shown to be efficient. Received June 24, 1999 / Revised version received August 24, 2000 / Published online May 4, 2001     

Upper and lower error bounds for plate-bending finite elements

Summary. We compare the robustness of three different low-order mixed methods that have been proposed for plate-bending problems: the so-called MITC, Arnold-Falk and Arnold-Brezzi elements. We show that for free plates, the asymptotic rate of convergence in the presence of quasiuniform meshes approaches the optimal O(h) for MITC elements as the thickness approaches 0, but only approaches for the latter two. We accomplish this by establishing lower bounds for the error in the rotation. The deterioration occurs due to a consistency error associated with the boundary layer – we show how a modification of the elements at the boundary can fix the problem. Finally, we show that the Arnold-Brezzi element requires extra regularity for the convergence of the limiting (discrete Kirchhoff) case, and show that it fails to converge in the presence of point loads. Received June 9, 1998 / Published online December 6, 1999     

A posteriori error estimates for mixed finite element approximations of elliptic problems

We derive residual based a posteriori error estimates of the flux in L ²-norm for a general class of mixed methods for elliptic problems. The estimate is applicable to standard mixed methods such as the Raviart–Thomas–Nedelec and Brezzi–Douglas–Marini elements, as well as stabilized methods such as the Galerkin-Least squares method. The element residual in the estimate employs an elementwise computable postprocessed approximation of the displacement which gives optimal order.     

Locking and robustness in the finite element method for circular arch problem

Summary. In this paper we discuss locking and robustness of the finite element method for a model circular arch problem. It is shown that in the primal variable (i.e., the standard displacement formulation), the p-version is free from locking and uniformly robust with order and hence exhibits optimal rate of convergence. On the other hand, the h-version shows locking of order , and is uniformly robust with order for which explains the fact that the quadratic element for some circular arch problems suffers from locking for thin arches in computational experience. If mixed method is used, both the h-version and the p-version are free from locking. Furthermore, the mixed method even converges uniformly with an optimal rate for the stress. Received June 5, 1992 / Revised version received May 17, 1994     

Error estimates for a mixed finite element discretization of some degenerate parabolic equations

We consider a numerical scheme for a class of degenerate parabolic equations, including both slow and fast diffusion cases. A particular example in this sense is the Richards equation modeling the flow in porous media. The numerical scheme is based on the mixed finite element method (MFEM) in space, and is of one step implicit in time. The lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements are used. Here we extend the results in Radu et al. (SIAM J Numer Anal 42:1452–1478, 2004), Schneid et al. (Numer Math 98:353–370, 2004) to a more general framework, by allowing for both types of degeneracies. We derive error estimates in terms of the discretization parameters and show the convergence of the scheme. The features of the MFEM, especially of the lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements, are now fully exploited in the proof of the convergence. The paper is concluded by numerical examples.     

Convergent adaptive finite elements for the nonlinear Laplacian

Summary. The numerical solution of the homogeneous Dirichlet problem for the p-Laplacian, , is considered. We propose an adaptive algorithm with continuous piecewise affine finite elements and prove that the approximate solutions converge to the exact one. While the algorithm is a rather straight-forward generalization of those for the linear case p=2, the proof of its convergence is different. In particular, it does not rely on a strict error reduction. Received December 29, 2000 / Revised version received August 30, 2001 / Published online December 18, 2001 RID="*" ID="*" Current address: Dipartimento di Matematica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via C. Saldini 50, 20133 Milano, Italy; e-mail: veeser@mat.unimi.it     

Error analysis of mixed finite element methods for wave propagation in double negative metamaterials

In this paper, we develop both semi-discrete and fully discrete mixed finite element methods for modeling wave propagation in three-dimensional double negative metamaterials. Optimal error estimates are proved for Nédélec spaces under the assumption of smooth solutions. To our best knowledge, this is the first error analysis obtained for Maxwell's equations when metamaterials are involved.     

Optimal rectangular MITC finite elements for Reissner–Mindlin plates

In recent years a family of finite elements named mixed interpolated tensorial components (MITC) has been introduced for the numerical approximation of Reissner–Mindlin plates. The elements have been proved to be locking free. In this article, we consider the MITC rectangular finite elements and show that it is possible to reduce the number of internal degrees of freedom in the approximation of the rotation field without losing order of convergence. Our mathematical analysis is carried out combining some results for the Stokes problem with the special features of the MITC finite elements. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 13: 575–585, 1997     

Approximation of general arch problems by straight beam elements

Summary In this paper, we approximate the solution of a problem of a general arch by a nonconforming method using straight beam elements and taking into account numerical integration. Compatibility conditions which have to be satisfied at the mesh points are given. These conditions ensure for this method the same order of convergence as usual conforming finite element methods.     

Composite finite elements for the approximation of PDEs on domains with complicated micro-structures

Summary. Usually, the minimal dimension of a finite element space is closely related to the geometry of the physical object of interest. This means that sometimes the resolution of small micro-structures in the domain requires an inadequately fine finite element grid from the viewpoint of the desired accuracy. This fact limits also the application of multi-grid methods to practical situations because the condition that the coarsest grid should resolve the physical object often leads to a huge number of unknowns on the coarsest level. We present here a strategy for coarsening finite element spaces independently of the shape of the object. This technique can be used to resolve complicated domains with only few degrees of freedom and to apply multi-grid methods efficiently to PDEs on domains with complex boundary. In this paper we will prove the approximation property of these generalized FE spaces. Received June 9, 1995 / Revised version received February 5, 1996     

A mixed finite element method for solving the nonstationary stokes equation

Summary This paper deals with a mixed finite element method for approximating a fourth order initial value problem arising from the nonstationary Stokes problem. For piecewise linear shape functions error estimates are given with convergence rates similar to the elliptic case. Some numerical computations will illustrate the theoretical results.     

Linear and bilinear immersed finite elements for planar elasticity interface problems

This article is to discuss the linear (which was proposed in  and ) and bilinear immersed finite element (IFE) methods for solving planar elasticity interface problems with structured Cartesian meshes. Basic features of linear and bilinear IFE functions, including the unisolvent property, will be discussed. While both methods have comparable accuracy, the bilinear IFE method requires less time for assembling its algebraic system. Our analysis further indicates that the bilinear IFE functions are guaranteed to be applicable to a larger class of elasticity interface problems than linear IFE functions. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate that both linear and bilinear IFE spaces have the optimal approximation capability, and that numerical solutions produced by a Galerkin method with these IFE functions for elasticity interface problem also converge optimally in both L²$L^2$ and semi-H¹$H^1$ norms.     

A stabilized mixed finite element method for the biharmonic equation based on biorthogonal systems

We propose a stabilized finite element method for the approximation of the biharmonic equation with a clamped boundary condition. The mixed formulation of the biharmonic equation is obtained by introducing the gradient of the solution and a Lagrange multiplier as new unknowns. Working with a pair of bases forming a biorthogonal system, we can easily eliminate the gradient of the solution and the Lagrange multiplier from the saddle point system leading to a positive definite formulation. Using a superconvergence property of a gradient recovery operator, we prove an optimal a priori estimate for the finite element discretization for a class of meshes.     

Inf-sup stable non-conforming finite elements of arbitrary order on triangles

We introduce a family of scalar non-conforming finite elements of arbitrary order k≥1 with respect to the H¹-norm on triangles. Their vector-valued version generates together with a discontinuous pressure approximation of order k−1 an inf-sup stable finite element pair of order k for the Stokes problem in the energy norm. For k=1 the well-known Crouzeix-Raviart element is recovered.     

Continuous-discontinuous finite element method for convection-diffusion problems with characteristic layers

We study convergence properties of a numerical method for convection-diffusion problems with characteristic layers on a layer-adapted mesh. The method couples standard Galerkin with an h-version of the nonsymmetric discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with bilinear elements. In an associated norm, we derive the error estimate as well as the supercloseness result that are uniform in the perturbation parameter. Applying a post-processing operator for the discontinuous Galerkin method, we construct a new numerical solution with enhanced convergence properties.