Stiff arc length constraint in nonlinear FEA

    Authors

    D. W. Nicholson

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Acta Mech.

    Keywords

    Mechanics

    Abstract

    Are length constraints enable iterative solution procedures in nonlinear finite element analysis to converge even at critical points. The are length constraint replaces the conventional m x m stiffness matrix with an augmented (m + 1) x (m + 1) stiffness matrix. Its use is referred to as arc length control, in contrast to load control which furnishes the conventional stiffness matrix. In the cut-rent article, an apparently new arc length constraint is introduced. It identifies arc length parameters maximizing the stiffness (absolute value of the determinant) of the augmented matrix. The parameters, viewed as a vector, must be perpendicular to the rows of the stiffness matrix, likewise considered vectors. The augmented stiffness matrix is nonsymmetric and lacks the small bandwidth of the conventional stiffness matrix. However, using a block triangularization, it is demonstrated that a solutio a may be attained by standard finite element operations, namely triangularization of a banded nonsingular portion of the stiffness matrix followed by forward and backward substitutions involving banded lower and upper triangular matrices. The proposed constraint is expected to permit convergence under longer are lengths than currently implemented methods. A simple example is given illustrating the application of the constraint.

    Journal Title

    Acta Mechanica

    Volume

    175

    Issue/Number

    1-4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2005

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    123

    Last Page

    137

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000228657400008

    ISSN

    0001-5970

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