A force-based large increment method for 2D continuum solids and the mesh convergence study

In this paper, a triangular plane stress element is implemented based on the large increment method (LIM) to solve 2D continuum mechanics problems. In the LIM, after the governing equations are established using the generalized elemental force variables as primary unknowns, an iteration procedure is employed to obtain an optimised approximate solution of the problem. Two numerical examples are investigated to study the mesh convergence of the proposed triangular LIM element. Structured meshes as well as unstructured meshes with different element densities are generated to illustrate the convergence of the total strain energy in both examples. The numerical results obtained from the LIM (including the total strain energy, the displacement and the stress) are compared with the analytical solutions as well as the results from the commercial FEM software ABAQUS. All the results show that the performance of the LIM is as good as the FEM in linear elastic problems. A simple elastoplastic example suggests that the LIM may obtain better result than the FEM. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.