Construction of n-sided polygonal spline element using area coordinates and B-net method

Abstract

In general, triangular and quadrilateral elements are commonly applied in two-dimensional finite element methods. If they are used to compute polycrystalline materials, the cost of computation can be quite significant. Polygonal elements can do well in simulation of the materials behavior and provide greater flexibility for the meshing of complex geometries. Hence, the study on the polygonal element is a very useful and necessary part in the finite element method. In this paper, an n-sided polygonal element based on quadratic spline interpolant, denoted by PS2 element, is presented using the triangular area coordinates and the B-net method. The PS2 element is conforming and can exactly model the quadratic field. It is valid for both convex and non-convex polygonal element, and insensitive to mesh distortions. In addition, no mapping or coordinate transformation is required and thus no Jacobian matrix and its inverse are evaluated. Some appropriate examples are employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed element.