Introduction to the strain-smoothed element method for analysis of solid and shell problems

Abstract

We introduce the strain-smoothed element (SSE) method recently developed for analysis of solid and shell problems. The strain-smoothed 3-node triangular and 4-node tetrahedral solid elements and 3-node triangular shell element were developed. Unlike smoothed finite element methods (S-FEMs), the SSE method requires no special smoothing domain and linear strain fields are formed within elements. The strainsmoothed elements pass the basic tests (isotropy, patch and zero energy mode tests) and show significantly improved convergence behavior in various numerical examples. The method could be easily extended for solving non-linear problems.