Efficient optimization-based quadrature for variational discretization of nonlocal problems

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2022), 396

Casting nonlocal problems in variational form and discretizing them with the finite element (FE) method facilitates the use of nonlocal vector calculus to prove well-posedness, convergence, and stability ... [more ▼]

Casting nonlocal problems in variational form and discretizing them with the finite element (FE) method facilitates the use of nonlocal vector calculus to prove well-posedness, convergence, and stability of such schemes. Employing an FE method also facilitates meshing of complicated domain geometries and coupling with FE methods for local problems. However, nonlocal weak problems involve the computation of a double-integral, which is computationally expensive and presents several challenges. In particular, the inner integral of the variational form associated with the stiffness matrix is defined over the intersections of FE mesh elements with a ball of radius δ, where δ is the range of nonlocal interaction. Identifying and parameterizing these intersections is a nontrivial computational geometry problem. In this work, we propose a quadrature technique where the inner integration is performed using quadrature points distributed over the full ball, without regard for how it intersects elements, and weights are computed based on the generalized moving least squares method. Thus, as opposed to all previously employed methods, our technique does not require element-by-element integration and fully circumvents the computation of element–ball intersections. This paper considers one- and two-dimensional implementations of piecewise linear continuous FE approximations, focusing on the case where the element size h and the nonlocal radius δ are proportional, as is typical of practical computations. When boundary conditions are treated carefully and the outer integral of the variational form is computed accurately, the proposed method is asymptotically compatible in the limit of h∼δ→0, featuring at least first-order convergence in L2 for all dimensions, using both uniform and nonuniform grids. Moreover, in the case of uniform grids, the proposed method passes a patch test and, according to numerical evidence, exhibits an optimal, second-order convergence rate. Our numerical tests also indicate that, even for nonuniform grids, second-order convergence can be observed over a substantial pre-asymptotic regime. © 2022 Elsevier B.V. [less ▲]

Accelerating fatigue simulations of a phase-field damage model for rubber

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2020), 370(113247),

Phase-field damage models are able to describe crack nucleation as well as crack propagation and coalescence without additional technicalities, because cracks are treated in a continuous, spatially finite ... [more ▼]

Phase-field damage models are able to describe crack nucleation as well as crack propagation and coalescence without additional technicalities, because cracks are treated in a continuous, spatially finite manner. Previously, we have developed a phase-field model to capture the rate-dependent failure of rubber, and we have further enhanced it to describe failure due to cyclic loading. Although the model accurately describes fatigue failure, the associated cyclic simulations are slow. Therefore, this contribution presents an acceleration scheme for cyclic simulations of our previously introduced phase-field damage model so that the simulation speed is increased to facilitate large-scale simulations of industrially relevant problems. We formulate an explicit and an implicit cycle jump method, which, depending on the selected jump size, reduce the calculation time up to 99.5%. To circumvent the manual tuning of the jump size, we also present an adaptive jump size selection procedure. Thanks to the implicit adaptive scheme, all material parameters are identified from experiments, which include fatigue crack nucleation and crack growth. Finally, the model and its parameters are validated with additional measurements of the fatigue crack growth rate. [less ▲]

Structural shape optimization of three dimensional acoustic problems with isogeometric boundary element methods

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2019), 355

The boundary element method (BEM) is a powerful tool in computational acoustics, because the analysis is conducted only on structural surfaces, compared to the finite element method (FEM) which resorts to ... [more ▼]

The boundary element method (BEM) is a powerful tool in computational acoustics, because the analysis is conducted only on structural surfaces, compared to the finite element method (FEM) which resorts to special techniques to truncate infinite domains. The isogeometric boundary element method (IGABEM) is a recent progress in the category of boundary element approaches, which is inspired by the concept of isogeometric analysis (IGA) and employs the spline functions of CAD as basis functions to discretize unknown physical fields. As a boundary representation approach, IGABEM is naturally compatible with CAD and thus can directly perform numerical analysis on CAD models, avoiding the cumbersome meshing procedure in conventional FEM/BEM and eliminating the difficulty of volume parameterization in isogeometric finite element methods. The advantage of tight integration of CAD and numerical analysis in IGABEM renders it particularly attractive in the application of structural shape optimization because (1) the geometry and the analysis can be interacted, (2) remeshing with shape morphing can be avoided, and (3) an optimized solution returns a CAD geometry directly without postprocessing steps. In the present paper, we apply the IGABEM to structural shape optimization of three dimensional exterior acoustic problems, fully exploiting the strength of IGABEM in addressing infinite domain problems and integrating CAD and numerical analysis. We employ the Burton–Miller formulation to overcome fictitious frequency problems, in which hyper-singular integrals are evaluated explicitly. The gradient-based optimizer is adopted and shape sensitivity analysis is conducted with implicit differentiation methods. The design variables are set to be the positions of control points which directly determine the shape of structures. Finally, numerical examples are provided to verify the algorithm. [less ▲]

A unified enrichment approach addressing blending and conditioning issues in enriched finite elements

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2019), 349

We present a combination of techniques to improve the convergence and conditioning properties of partition of unity (PU) enriched finite element methods. By applying these techniques to different types of ... [more ▼]

We present a combination of techniques to improve the convergence and conditioning properties of partition of unity (PU) enriched finite element methods. By applying these techniques to different types of enrichment functions, namely polynomial, discontinuous and singular, higher order convergence rates can be obtained while keeping condition number growth rates similar to the ones corresponding to standard finite elements. [less ▲]

A simple and robust computational homogenization approach for heterogeneous particulate composites

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2019), 349

In this article, a computationally efficient multi-split MsXFEM is proposed to evaluate the elastic properties of heterogeneous materials. The multi-split MsXFEM is the combination of multi-split XFEM ... [more ▼]

In this article, a computationally efficient multi-split MsXFEM is proposed to evaluate the elastic properties of heterogeneous materials. The multi-split MsXFEM is the combination of multi-split XFEM with multiscale finite element methods (MsFEM). The multi-split XFEM is capable to model multiple discontinuities in a single element which leads to reduction in the number of mesh elements, whereas MsFEM helps in reducing the computational time. Strain energy based homogenization has been implemented on an RVE (having volume fraction of heterogeneities up to 50%) for evaluating the elastic properties. From macro-element size analysis, we estimate that the RVE edge length must be 5 times the edge length of the macro-element. The directional analysis has been performed to verify the isotropic behavior of the material, whereas contrast analysis has been done to check the numerical accuracy of the proposed scheme. A level set correction (LSC) based on higher order shape functions has been proposed to reduce mapping errors of level set values. It is also observed that multi-split MsXFEM is about 16 times computationally more efficient than MsXFEM for 50% volume of heterogeneities. [less ▲]

A volume-averaged nodal projection method for the Reissner-Mindlin plate model

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2018), 341

We introduce a novel meshfree Galerkin method for the solution of Reissner-Mindlin plate problems that is written in terms of the primitive variables only (i.e., rotations and transverse displacement) and ... [more ▼]

We introduce a novel meshfree Galerkin method for the solution of Reissner-Mindlin plate problems that is written in terms of the primitive variables only (i.e., rotations and transverse displacement) and is devoid of shear-locking. The proposed approach uses linear maximum-entropy approximations and is built variationally on a two-field potential energy functional wherein the shear strain, written in terms of the primitive variables, is computed via a volume-averaged nodal projection operator that is constructed from the Kirchhoff constraint of the three-field mixed weak form. The stability of the method is rendered by adding bubble-like enrichment to the rotation degrees of freedom. Some benchmark problems are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and performance of the proposed method for a wide range of plate thicknesses. [less ▲]

Improving the conditioning of XFEM/GFEM for fracture mechanics problems through enrichment quasi-orthogonalization

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2018)

Partition of unity enrichment is known to significantly enhance the accuracy of the finite element method by allowing the incorporation of known characteristics of the solution in the approximation space ... [more ▼]

Partition of unity enrichment is known to significantly enhance the accuracy of the finite element method by allowing the incorporation of known characteristics of the solution in the approximation space. However, in several cases it can further cause conditioning problems for which a number of remedies have been proposed in the framework of the extended/generalized finite element method (XFEM/GFEM). Those solutions often involve significant modifications to the initial method and result in increased implementation complexity. In the present work, a simple procedure for the local near-orthogonalization of enrichment functions is introduced, which significantly improves the conditioning of the resulting system matrices, while requiring only minor modifications to the initial method. Although application to different types of enrichment functions is possible, the resulting scheme is specialized for the singular enrichment functions used in linear elastic fracture mechanics and tested through benchmark problems. [less ▲]

A parallel and efficient multi-split XFEM for 3-D analysis of heterogeneous materials

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2018)

We propose a parallel and computationally efficient multi-split XFEM approach for 3-D analysis of heterogeneous materials. In this approach, multiple discontinuities (pores and reinforcement particles ... [more ▼]

We propose a parallel and computationally efficient multi-split XFEM approach for 3-D analysis of heterogeneous materials. In this approach, multiple discontinuities (pores and reinforcement particles) may intersect any given element (we call those elements multi-split elements). These discontinuities are modeled by imposing additional degrees of freedom at the nodes. The main advantage of the proposed scheme is that the mesh size remains independent of the relative distance among the heterogeneities/discontinuities. The pores and reinforcement particles are assumed to be spherical. The simulations are performed for uniform and non-uniform heterogeneity distribution. The Young’s modulus of the heterogeneous material is evaluated for different amount of pores and reinforcement particles. To demonstrate the computational efficiency of the multi-split XFEM, elastic damage analysis is performed for the unit cell with 5% pores and 5% reinforcement particles under uniaxial tensile loading. These simulations show that the Young’s modulus decreases linearly with the increase in the volume fraction of the pores and increases linearly with the increase in volume fraction of reinforcement particles. The multi-split XFEM is found to be at least 1.8 times computationally efficient than standard XFEM and at least 6.7 times computationally efficient than FEM. [less ▲]

Adaptive Isogeometric analysis for plate vibrations: An efficient approach of local refinement based on hierarchical a posteriori error estimation

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2018), 342

This paper presents a novel methodology of local adaptivity for the frequency-domain analysis of the vibrations of Reissner–Mindlin plates. The adaptive discretization is based on the recently developed ... [more ▼]

This paper presents a novel methodology of local adaptivity for the frequency-domain analysis of the vibrations of Reissner–Mindlin plates. The adaptive discretization is based on the recently developed Geometry Independent Field approximaTion (GIFT) framework, which may be seen as a generalization of the Iso-Geometric Analysis (IGA).Within the GIFT framework, we describe the geometry of the structure exactly with NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines), whilst independently employing Polynomial splines over Hierarchical T-meshes (PHT)-splines to represent the solution field. The proposed strategy of local adaptivity, wherein a posteriori error estimators are computed based on inexpensive hierarchical h-refinement, aims to control the discretization error within a frequency band. The approach sweeps from lower to higher frequencies, refining the mesh appropriately so that each of the free vibration mode within the targeted frequency band is sufficiently resolved. Through several numerical examples, we show that the GIFT framework is a powerful and versatile tool to perform local adaptivity in structural dynamics. We also show that the proposed adaptive local h-refinement scheme allows us to achieve significantly faster convergence rates than a uniform h-refinement. [less ▲]

Accelerating Monte Carlo estimation with derivatives of high-level finite element models

in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2017), 318

In this paper we demonstrate the ability of a derivative-driven Monte Carlo estimator to accelerate the propagation of uncertainty through two high-level non-linear finite element models. The use of ... [more ▼]

In this paper we demonstrate the ability of a derivative-driven Monte Carlo estimator to accelerate the propagation of uncertainty through two high-level non-linear finite element models. The use of derivative information amounts to a correction to the standard Monte Carlo estimation procedure that reduces the variance under certain conditions. We express the finite element models in variational form using the high-level Unified Form Language (UFL). We derive the tangent linear model automatically from this high-level description and use it to efficiently calculate the required derivative information. To study the effectiveness of the derivative-driven method we consider two stochastic PDEs; a one- dimensional Burgers equation with stochastic viscosity and a three-dimensional geometrically non-linear Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic equation with stochastic density and volumetric material parameter. Our results show that for these problems the first-order derivative-driven Monte Carlo method is around one order of magnitude faster than the standard Monte Carlo method and at the cost of only one extra tangent linear solution per estimation problem. We find similar trends when comparing with a modern non-intrusive multi-level polynomial chaos expansion method. We parallelise the task of the repeated forward model evaluations across a cluster using the ipyparallel and mpi4py software tools. A complete working example showing the solution of the stochastic viscous Burgers equation is included as supplementary material. [less ▲]