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.

     

New mixed finite elements for plane elasticity and Stokes equations

We consider mixed finite elements for the plane elasticity system and the Stokes equation. For the unmodified Hellinger-Reissner formulation of elasticity in which the stress and displacement fields are the primary unknowns, we derive two new nonconforming mixed finite elements of triangle type. Both elements use piecewise rigid motions to approximate the displacement and piecewise polynomial functions to approximate the stress, where no vertex degrees of freedom are involved. The two stress finite element ...     

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.     

Mixed hp finite element methods for problems in elasticity and Stokes flow

Summary. We consider the mixed formulation for the elasticity problem and the limiting Stokes problem in , . We derive a set of sufficient conditions under which families of mixed finite element spaces are simultaneously stable with respect to the mesh size and, subject to a maximum loss of , with respect to the polynomial degree . We obtain asymptotic rates of convergence that are optimal up to in the displacement/velocity and up to in the "pressure", with arbitrary (both rates being optimal with respect to ). Several choices of elements are discussed with reference to properties desirable in the context of the -version. Received March 4, 1994 / Revised version received February 12, 1995     

A family of symmetric mixed finite elements for linear elasticity on tetrahedral grids

A family of stable mixed finite elements for the linear elasticity on tetrahedral grids are constructed,where the stress is approximated by symmetric H(div)-Pk polynomial tensors and the displacement is approximated by C-1-Pk-1polynomial vectors,for all k 4.The main ingredients for the analysis are a new basis of the space of symmetric matrices,an intrinsic H(div)bubble function space on each element,and a new technique for establishing the discrete inf-sup condition.In particular,they enable us to prove that the divergence space of the H(div)bubble function space is identical to the orthogonal complement space of the rigid motion space with respect to the vector-valued Pk-1polynomial space on each tetrahedron.The optimal error estimate is proved,verified by numerical examples.     

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.     

Numerical electroseismic modeling: A finite element approach

Electroseismics is a procedure that uses the conversion of electromagnetic to seismic waves in a fluid-saturated porous rock due to the electrokinetic phenomenon. This work presents a collection of continuous and discrete time finite element procedures for electroseismic modeling in poroelastic fluid-saturated media. The model involves the simultaneous solution of Biot’s equations of motion and Maxwell’s equations in a bounded domain, coupled via an electrokinetic coefficient, with appropriate initial conditions and employing absorbing boundary conditions at the artificial boundaries. The 3D case is formulated and analyzed in detail including results on the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the initial boundary value problem. Apriori error estimates for a continuous-time finite element procedure based on parallelepiped elements are derived, with Maxwell’s equations discretized in space using the lowest order mixed finite element spaces of Nédélec, while for Biot’s equations a nonconforming element for each component of the solid displacement vector and the vector part of the Raviart-Thomas-Nédélec of zero order for the fluid displacement vector are employed. A fully implicit discrete-time finite element method is also defined and its stability is demonstrated. The results are also extended to the case of tetrahedral elements. The 2D cases of compressional and vertically polarized shear waves coupled with the transverse magnetic polarization (PSVTM-mode) and horizontally polarized shear waves coupled with the transverse electric polarization (SHTE-mode) are also formulated and the corresponding finite element spaces are defined. The 1D SHTE initial boundary value problem is also formulated and approximately solved using a discrete-time finite element procedure, which was implemented to obtain the numerical examples presented.     

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.

     

Finite element differential forms

A differential form is a field which assigns to each point of a domain an alternating multilinear form on its tangent space. The exterior derivative operation, which maps differential forms to differential forms of the next higher order, unifies the basic first order differential operators of calculus, and is a building block for a great variety of differential equations. When discretizing such differential equations by finite element methods, stable discretization depends on the development of spaces of finite element differential forms. As revealed recently through the finite element exterior calculus, for each order of differential form, there are two natural families of finite element subspaces associated to a simplicial triangulation. In the case of forms of order zero, which are simply functions, these two families reduce to one, which is simply the well-known family of Lagrange finite element subspaces of the first order Sobolev space. For forms of degree 1 and of degree n − 1 (where n is the space dimension), we obtain two natural families of finite element subspaces, unifying many of the known mixed finite element spaces developed over the last decades. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

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     

板的低阶间断与连续有限元法统一分析

基于Reissner-Mindlin板问题的间断Galerkin有限元逼近, 建立了一个对挠度空间和角位移空间取连续或间断元都适用的低阶有限元离散格式. 取剪切力空间为分片常数元, 挠度空间和角位移空间无论取间断元还是连续元, 格式都是一致稳定的, 并给出了H¹范数估计及L²范数估计. 作为应用,对几类低阶有限元空间讨论. 结果表明, 该格式对常见的低阶有限元空间都适用, 并且若至少有一个元连续时, 该格式需要的空间比[1,2]中的都要简单.       

Implicit‐explicit multistep finite element methods for nonlinear convection‐diffusion problems

Implicit‐explicit multistep finite element methods for nonlinear convection‐diffusion equations are presented and analyzed. In space we discretize by finite element methods. The discretization in time is based on linear multistep schemes. The linear part of the equation is discretized implicitly and the nonlinear part of the equation explicitly. The schemes are stable and very efficient. We derive optimal order error estimates. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 17:93–104, 2001     

The p-version of the FEM for computational contact mechanics

Contact analyses are being performed in various engineering applications. Here, like in most other fields, FE codes are based on low order elements using linear or quadratic shape functions. The intention of this paper is to show that finite elements with shape functions of high polynomial degree (p-FEM) are a very attractive alternative to low order elements, even for computational contact mechanics. One of the advantages is the possibility to enhance the element formulation with the blending function method in order to accurately discretize the given geometry, which leads in combination with high convergence rates to very efficient computations. In order to solve the problem of frictionless contact, a penalty formulation is applied in this work. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Éléments finis mixtes minimaux sur les polyèdres

Given a cellular complex consisting of polytopes, embedded in a Euclidean space, we construct finite element spaces of differential forms, conforming with respect to the exterior derivative, containing those that are polynomial of given maximal degree, having locally the property of exact sequence and extension, so that among all spaces having these properties they have the smallest dimension. More generally we construct, for any finite element system included in a compatible finite element system, an intermediate compatible finite element system of minimal dimension.     

Frames for vector spaces and affine spaces

A finite frame for a finite dimensional Hilbert space is simply a spanning sequence. We show that the linear functionals given by the dual frame vectors do not depend on the inner product, and thus it is possible to extend the frame expansion (and other elements of frame theory) to any finite spanning sequence for a vector space. The corresponding coordinate functionals generalise the dual basis (the case when the vectors are linearly independent), and are characterised by the fact that the associated Gramian matrix is an orthogonal projection. Existing generalisations of the frame expansion to Banach spaces involve an analogue of the frame bounds and frame operator.The potential applications of our results are considerable. Whenever there is a natural spanning set for a vector space, computations can be done directly with it, in an efficient and stable way. We illustrate this with a diverse range of examples, including multivariate spline spaces, generalised barycentric coordinates, and vector spaces over the rationals, such as the cyclotomic fields.     

Multilevel methods for mixed finite elements in three dimensions

In this paper we consider second order scalar elliptic boundary value problems posed over three–dimensional domains and their discretization by means of mixed Raviart–Thomas finite elements [18]. This leads to saddle point problems featuring a discrete flux vector field as additional unknown. Following Ewing and Wang [26], the proposed solution procedure is based on splitting the flux into divergence free components and a remainder. It leads to a variational problem involving solenoidal Raviart–Thomas vector fields. A fast iterative solution method for this problem is presented. It exploits the representation of divergence free vector fields as s of the –conforming finite element functions introduced by Nédélec [43]. We show that a nodal multilevel splitting of these finite element spaces gives rise to an optimal preconditioner for the solenoidal variational problem: Duality techniques in quotient spaces and modern algebraic multigrid theory [50, 10, 31] are the main tools for the proof. Received November 4, 1996 / Revised version received February 2, 1998     

The Runge‐Kutta DG finite element method and the KFVS scheme for compressible flow simulations

This article presents a new type of second‐order scheme for solving the system of Euler equations, which combines the Runge‐Kutta discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element method and the kinetic flux vector splitting (KFVS) scheme. We first discretize the Euler equations in space with the DG method and then the resulting system from the method‐of‐lines approach will be discretized using a Runge‐Kutta method. Finally, a second‐order KFVS method is used to construct the numerical flux. The proposed scheme preserves the main advantages of the DG finite element method including its flexibility in handling irregular solution domains and in parallelization. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method are illustrated by several numerical examples in one‐ and two‐dimensional spaces. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2006     

THE PARTIAL PROJECTION METHOD IN THE FINITE ELEMENT DISCRETIZATION OF THE REISSNER-MINDLIN PLATE MODEL

1.IntroductionItiswellknownthatthestandaxdfiniteelementdiscretizatiollsoftheReissner-Mindlinplateproblemproducepoorapproximationswhenthethicknessistoosmall...incomparisonwiththediameteroftheregionoccupiedbythemidsectionoftheplate.TherootisthesthcaJled"locking"phenomenonwhichisbynowwellunderstood.Amongseveralapproachestoavoidinglockingisamodificationofthestandardfiniteelementschemesbyinterpolatingorprojectingthediscretetrallsverseshearforceintoalower-orderfiniteelemelltspaJce.Thiskindofmethod…     

Nonconforming finite element methods on quadrilateral meshes

It is well known that it is comparatively difcult to design nonconforming fnite elements on quadrilateral meshes by using Gauss-Legendre points on each edge of triangulations.One reason lies in that these degrees of freedom associated with these Gauss-Legendre points are not all linearly independent for usual expected polynomial spaces,which explains why only several lower order nonconforming quadrilateral fnite elements can be found in literature.The present paper proposes two families of nonconforming fnite elements of any odd order and one family of nonconforming fnite elements of any even order on quadrilateral meshes.Degrees of freedom are given for these elements,which are proved to be well-defned for their corresponding shape function spaces in a unifying way.These elements generalize three lower order nonconforming fnite elements on quadrilaterals to any order.In addition,these nonconforming fnite element spaces are shown to be full spaces which is somehow not discussed for nonconforming fnite elements in literature before.     

A Piezoelectric Finite Shell Element for the Geometrically Nonlinear Analysis of Sensors

A geometrically nonlinear finite element formulation to analyze piezoelectric shell structures is presented. The formulation is based on the mixed field variational functional of Hu–Washizu. Within this variational principle the independent fields are displacements, electric potential, strains, electric field, stresses and dielectric displacements. The mixed formulation allows an interpolation of the strains and the electric field through the shell thickness, which is an essential advantage when using a three dimensional material law. It is remarked that no simplification regarding the constitutive relation is assumed. The normal zero stress condition and the normal zero dielectric displacement condition are enforced by the independent resultant stress and resultant dielectric displacement fields. The shell structure is modeled by a reference surface with a four node element. Each node possesses six mechanical degrees of freedom, three displacements and three rotations, and one electrical degree of freedom, which is the difference of the electric potential through the shell thickness. The developed mixed hybrid shell element fulfills the in–plane, bending and shear patch tests, which have been adopted for coupled field problems. A numerical investigation of a smart antenna demonstrates the applicability of the piezoelectric shell element under the consideration of geometrical nonlinearity. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)