Mechanical integrators for mixed elements in nonlinear elastodynamics

Enhanced assumed strain (EAS) elements (see, for example, [1]) are well‐known to exhibit improved convergence behavior, especially in the context of bending dominated situations and in the incompressible limit. In the present work we focus on the application of EAS elements to nonlinear elastodynamics. In particular, we aim at the design of energy‐momentum schemes for the stable numerical integration of the semi‐discrete equations of motion. For this purpose we make use of the notion of a G‐equivariant discrete derivative introduced by Gonzalez [2] in the framework of general finite‐dimensional Hamiltonian systems with symmetry. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)