High-accuracy low-order three-dimensional brick elements

Abstract

This paper presents a family of low-order high-accuracy three-dimensional brick elements. The elements are formulated via a three-field variational principle. The assumed (independent) strain field is constructed from two disjointed distributions. The first contains the lower-order distribution and its dimension is the minimum required to satisfy stability requirements. An energy constraint, which is enforced weakly at the element level, is used to relate the second distribution to the first. The stress field is chosen to a priori satisfy a similar energy constraint. As a result, internal constraints (e.g. incompressibility) are automatically satisfied by these fields, and locking behaviour is avoided. A J2-plasticity model illustrates the proposed elements' performance in nonlinear solids. The excellent performance of the proposed elements is demonstrated with numerous challenging examples, including many that are usually modelled by shell elements.