MODELLING STRONG DISCONTINUITIES IN SOLID MECHANICS VIA STRAIN SOFTENING CONSTITUTIVE EQUATIONS. PART 2: NUMERICAL SIMULATION

Abstract

On the basis of the strong discontinuity analysis of standard local stress–strain constitutive equations, a finite element framework for the simulation of strong discontinuities, which belongs to the family of assumed enhanced strain methods, is presented. Taking the standard linear triangle as the underlying element, an additional incompatible mode leads to the formulation of an enriched strain field which is shown to be able to appropriately capture strong discontinuities. The presented numerical simulations show that mesh size and mesh alignment dependencies can be completely removed.