Premium
A refined global‐local finite element analysis method
Author(s) -
Mao K. M.,
Sun C. T.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1097-0207
pISSN - 0029-5981
DOI - 10.1002/nme.1620320103
Subject(s) - finite element method , computation , mixed finite element method , displacement (psychology) , polygon mesh , extended finite element method , boundary knot method , boundary (topology) , mathematics , numerical analysis , smoothed finite element method , finite element limit analysis , boundary value problem , computer science , geometry , algorithm , mathematical analysis , boundary element method , structural engineering , engineering , psychology , psychotherapist
A refined global‐local method was proposed to improve the efficiency of finite element analysis. The proposed method was based on the regular finite element method in conjunction with three basic step, i.e. the global analysis, the local analysis and the refined global analysis. In the first two steps, a coarse finite element mesh was used to analyse the entire structure to obtain the nodal displacements which were subsequently used as displacement boundary conditions for local regions of interest. These local regions with the prescribed boundary conditions were then analysed with refined meshes to obtain more accurate stresses. In the third step, a new global displacement distribution based on the results of the previous two steps was assumed for the analysis, from which much improved solutions for both stresses and displacements were produced. Numerical examples showed that the proposed method yielded accurate solutions with significant savings in computing time compared with the regular finite element method. Further, this method is suitable for parallel computation.