Finite element quadrature of regularized discontinuous and singular level set functions in 3D problems

Abstract

Regularized Heaviside and Dirac delta function are used in several fields of computational physics and mechanics. Hence the issue of the quadrature of integrals of discontinuous and singular functions arises. In order to avoid ad-hoc quadrature procedures, regularization of the discontinuous and the singular fields is often carried out. In particular, weight functions of the signed distance with respect to the discontinuity interface are exploited. Tornberg and Engquist (Journal of Scientific Computing, 2003, 19: 527-552) proved that the use of compact support weight function is not suitable because it leads to errors that do not vanish for decreasing mesh size. They proposed the adoption of non-compact support weight functions. In the present contribution, the relationship between the Fourier transform of the weight functions and the accuracy of the regularization procedure is exploited. The proposed regularized approach was implemented in the eXtended Finite Element Method. As a three-dimensional example, we study a slender solid characterized by an inclined interface across which the displacement is discontinuous. The accuracy is evaluated for varying position of the discontinuity interfaces with respect to the underlying mesh. A procedure for the choice of the regularization parameters is proposed. © 2012 by the authors.