Abstract
The theorem of minimum potential energy is not valid for an incompressible material. A new variational principle, called splitting elastic modulus variational principle, is introduced. Splitting elastic modulus finite element which is based on the new principle is established. There is a splitting factor in the variational principle. Potential energy and complementary energy components in the finite element model are changed with the change of the splitting factor, so stiffness of the finite element model can be adjusted, precision of solutions of the finite element model can be improved. The paper shows that the minimum potential energy variational principle and Herrmann's principle are special cases of the splitting elastic modulus variational principle. Finally, two examples show that the splitting elastic modulus finite element not only can calculate compressible material but also can calculate incompressible or nearly incompressible material, and precision of the solutions is higher. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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