An improved accelerated initial stress procedure for elasto‐plastic finite element analysis

Abstract

AbstractThe most flexible and generally applicable methods for elasto‐plastic analysis are those based on an incremental‐iterative form of the initial stress approach, but such methods often exhibit slow convergence. The acceleration procedure known as the alpha‐constant stiffness method is reconsidered and some modifications are proposed. The principal difference in the present approach lies in the use of a single acceleration parameter, rather than a diagonal matrix of acceleration coefficients. The new scheme shows a significant improvement in numerical stability and converges three times faster than the standard initial stress method. Some practical aspects associated with the method are discussed and a number of applications are presented.