Open Access
ARTICLE
Matrix-Free Higher-Order Finite Element Method for Parallel Simulation of Compressible and Nearly-Incompressible Linear Elasticity on Unstructured Meshes
Arash Mehraban1, Henry Tufo1, Stein Sture2, Richard Regueiro2,*
1 Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
2 Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
* Corresponding Author:Richard Regueiro. Email:
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Advances in Computational Mechanics and Optimization
To celebrate the 95th birthday of Professor Karl Stark Pister)
Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2021, 129(3), 1283-1303. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2021.017476
Received 13 May 2021; Accepted 02 July 2021; Issue published 25 November 2021
Abstract
Higher-order displacement-based finite element methods are useful for simulating bending problems and potentially addressing mesh-locking associated with nearly-incompressible elasticity, yet are computationally expensive.
To address the computational expense, the paper presents a matrix-free, displacement-based, higher-order, hexahedral finite element implementation of compressible and nearly-compressible (ν → 0.5) linear isotropic elasticity
at small strain with p-multigrid preconditioning. The cost, solve time, and scalability of the implementation with
respect to strain energy error are investigated for polynomial order
p = 1, 2, 3, 4 for compressible elasticity, and
p =
2, 3, 4 for nearly-incompressible elasticity, on different number of CPU cores for a tube bending problem. In the
context of this matrix-free implementation, higher-order polynomials (
p = 3, 4) generally are faster in achieving
better accuracy in the solution than lower-order polynomials (
p = 1, 2). However, for a beam bending simulation
with stress concentration (singularity), it is demonstrated that higher-order finite elements do not improve the
spatial order of convergence, even though accuracy is improved.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Mehraban, A., Tufo, H., Sture, S. Regueiro, R. (2021). Matrix-Free Higher-Order Finite Element Method for Parallel
Simulation of Compressible and Nearly-Incompressible Linear
Elasticity on Unstructured Meshes.
CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, 129(3), 1283-1303.