Non-invasive implementation of nonlinear isogeometric analysis in an industrial FE software

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to further simplify the use of NURBS in industrial environnements. Although isogeometric analysis (IGA) has been the object of intensive studies over the past decade, its massive deployment in industrial analysis still appears quite marginal. This is partly due to its implementation, which is not straightforward with respect to the elementary structure of finite element (FE) codes. This often discourages industrial engineers from adopting isogeometric capabilities in their well-established simulation environment. Design/methodology/approach Based on the concept of Bézier and Lagrange extractions, a novel method is proposed to implement IGA from an existing industrial FE code with the aim of bringing human implementation effort to the minimal possible level (only using standard input-output of finite element analysis (FEA) codes, avoid code-dependent subroutines implementation). An approximate global link to go from Lagrange polynomials to non-uniform-rational-B-splines functions is formulated, which enables the whole FE routines to be untouched during the implementation. Findings As a result, only the linear system resolution step is bypassed: the resolution is performed in an external script after projecting the FE system onto the reduced, more regular and isogeometric basis. The novel procedure is successfully validated through different numerical experiments involving linear and nonlinear isogeometric analyses using the standard input/output of the industrial FE software Code_Aster. Originality/value A non-invasive implementation of IGA into FEA software is proposed. The whole FE routines are untouched during the novel implementation procedure; a focus is made on the IGA solution of nonlinear problems from existing FEA software; technical details on the approach are provided by means of illustrative examples and step-by-step implementation; the methodology is evaluated on a range of two- and three-dimensional elasticity and elastoplasticity benchmarks solved using the commercial software Code_Aster.