A coupling strategy for adaptive local refinement in space and time with a fixed global model in explicit dynamics

Abstract

In dynamics, domain decomposition methods (DDMs) enable one to use different spatial and temporal discretizations depending on the physical phenomenon being taken into account. Thus, DDMs provide the analyst with key tools for dealing with problems in which phenomena occur on different temporal and spatial scales. This paper focuses on a less intrusive variation of this type of method which enables the global (industrial) mesh to remain unchanged while the local problem is being refined in space and in time where needed. This property is particularly useful in the case of a local problem whose localization evolves rapidly with time, as is the case for delamination. The downside is that the technique is iterative. The method is presented in the context of linear explicit dynamics, but, as with domain decomposition, its extension to other integration schemes and to nonlinear problems should be possible.