AN EFFICIENT NUMERICAL METHOD FOR CAVITATION IN NONLINEAR ELASTICITY

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the numerical computation of cavitation in nonlinear elasticity. The Crouzeix–Raviart nonconforming finite element method is shown to prevent the degeneration of the mesh provoked by the conventional finite element approximation of this problem. Upon the addition of a suitable stabilizing term to the elastic energy, the method is used to solve cavitation problems in both radially symmetric and non-radially symmetric settings. While the radially symmetric examples serve to illustrate the efficiency of the method, and for validation purposes, the experiments with non-centered and multiple cavities (carried out for the first time) yield novel observations of situations potentially leading to void coalescence.