The Equilibrium Cell-Based Smooth Finite Element Method for Shakedown Analysis of Structures

Abstract

This paper presents a novel equilibrium formulation, that uses the cell-based smoothed method and conic programming, for limit and shakedown analysis of structures. The virtual strains are computed using straining cell-based smoothing technique based on elements of discretized mesh. Fictitious elastic stresses are also determined within the framework of finite element method (CS-FEM)-based Galerkin procedure, and equilibrium equations for residual stresses are satisfied in an average sense at every cell-based smoothing cell. All constrains are imposed at only one point in the smoothing domains, instead of Gauss points as in a standard FEM-based procedure. The resulting optimization problem is then handled using the highly efficient solvers. Various numerical examples are investigated, and obtained solutions are compared with available results in the literature.