A HYBRID SMOOTHED FINITE ELEMENT METHOD (H-SFEM) TO SOLID MECHANICS PROBLEMS

Abstract

In this paper, a hybrid smoothed finite element method (H-SFEM) is developed for solid mechanics problems by combining techniques of finite element method (FEM) and node-based smoothed finite element method (NS-FEM) using a triangular mesh. A parameter α is equipped into H-SFEM, and the strain field is further assumed to be the weighted average between compatible stains from FEM and smoothed strains from NS-FEM. We prove theoretically that the strain energy obtained from the H-SFEM solution lies in between those from the compatible FEM solution and the NS-FEM solution, which guarantees the convergence of H-SFEM. Intensive numerical studies are conducted to verify these theoretical results and show that (1) the upper- and lower-bound solutions can always be obtained by adjusting α; (2) there exists a preferable α at which the H-SFEM can produce the ultrasonic accurate solution.