Adaptive Mesh Refinement in Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis of Shell Structures.pdfVIP

Adaptive Mesh Renement in Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis of Shell Structures Kjell Magne Mathisen and Knut Morten Okstad Department of Structural Engineering The Norwegian Institute of Technology N Trondheim Norway INTRODUCTION During the last decade much research has b een devoted to development of error estimators and adaptive nite element FE strategies for solving linear problems in structural mechanics However when considering nonlinear problems adaptive solution strategies b ecome even more app ealing particularly for highly nonlinear problems involving large deformations The present work discusses some key asp ects that have to b e considered in an adaptive nonlinear pro cedure As in the linear case we need to obtain an estimate of the error of a given FE solution When the error distribution is found the FE mo del may b e rened using h andor p metho ds in order to reduce the error In nonlinear problems two additional challenging issues have to b e addressed The mapping of state variables such as displacements stresses strains etc b etween two dierent FEmo dels and the up dating of the geometrical mo del to incorp orate large deformations These asp ects are discussed in more detail in the following sections The purp ose of this pap er is to present an adaptive strategy for general purp ose geometrically nonlinear FE shell analysis For this purp ose a MindlinReissner quadrilateral shell element GES prop osed by Simo et al is considered This element is based on a geometrically exact nonlinear stress resultant mo del which regard the shell as an inextensible onedirector Cosserat surface Some key asp ects of this formulation are the following  Singularityfr ee up date