Nearly Incompressible Large Deformation Analysis using 4-node Tetrahedral Edge Center-based Strain Smoothing Element (EC-SSE-T4)

Abstract

A new finite element formulation based on the edge center-based strain smoothing element using 4-node tetrahedral mesh (EC-SSE-T4) is presented for large deformation analysis of nearly incompressible solids. The present method combines EC-SSE-T4 and the cyclic smoothing technique using the selective reduced integration (SRI) to avoid numerical issues caused by incompressibility. EC-SSE-T4 helps to obtain accurate deviatoric strain/stress distributions, whereas the cyclic smoothing technique helps to suppress pressure checkerboarding; then, the volumetric locking is resolved by the SRI.