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A four-field mixed variational principle is proposed for large deformation analysis of Kirchhoff rods with a $C^0$ mixed FE approximations. The core idea behind the approach is to introduce a one-parameter family of points (the centerline) and a separate one-parameter family of orthonormal frames (the Cartan moving frame) that are specified independently. The curvature and torsion of the curve are related to the relative rotation of neighboring frames. The relationship between the frame and the centerline is then enforced at the solution step using a Lagrange multiplier (which plays the role of section force). Well known frames like the Frenet-Serret are defined only using the centerline, which demands higher-order smoothness for the centerline approximation. Decoupling the frame from the position vector of the base curve leads to a description of torsion and curvature that is independent of the position information, thus allowing for simpler interpolations. This approach is then cast in the language of exterior calculus. In this framework, the strain energy may be interpreted as a differential form leading to the natural force-displacement (velocity) pairing. The four-field mixed variational principle we propose has frame, differential forms, and position vector as input arguments. While the position vector is interpolated linearly, the frames are interpolated as piecewise geodesics on the rotation group. Similarly, consistent interpolation schemes are also adopted to obtain finite dimensional approximations for other differential forms aswell. Using these discrete approximations, a discrete mixed variational principle is laid out which is then numerically extremized. The discrete approximation is then applied to benchmark problems, our numerical studies reveal an impressive performance of the proposed method without numerical instabilities or locking.

This article discusses a mixed FE technique for 3D nonlinear elasticity using a Hu-Washizu (HW) type variational principle. Here, the deformed configuration and sections from its cotangent bundle are taken as additional input arguments. The critical points of the HW functional enforce compatibility of these sections with the configuration, in addition to mechanical equilibrium and constitutive relations. The present FE approximation distinguishes a vector from a 1-from, a feature not commonly found in FE approximations. This point of view permits us to construct finite elements with vastly superior performance. Discrete approximations for the differential forms appearing in the variational principle are constructed with ideas borrowed from finite element exterior calculus. The discrete equations describing mechanical equilibrium, compatibility and constitutive rule, are obtained by extemizing the discrete functional with respect to appropriate DoF, which are then solved using the Newton's method. This mixed FE technique is then applied to benchmark problems wherein conventional displacement based approximations encounter locking and checker boarding.

This article offers a new perspective for the mechanics of solids using moving Cartan's frame, specifically discussing a mixed variational principle in non-linear elasticity. We treat quantities defined on the co-tangent bundles of reference and deformed configurations as additional unknowns. Such a treatment invites compatibility of the fields with base-space (configurations of the body), so that the configuration can be realised as a subset of the Euclidean space. We first rewrite the metric and connection using differential forms, which are further utilised to write the deformation gradient and Cauchy-Green deformation tensor in terms of frame and co-frame fields. The geometric understanding of stress as a co-vector valued 2-form fits squarely within our overall program. We show that, for a hyperelastic solid, an equation similar to the Doyle-Erciksen formula may be written for the co-vector part of stress. Using these, we write a mixed energy functional in terms of differential forms, whose extremum leads to the compatibility of deformation, constitutive rules and equations of equilibrium. Finite element exterior calculus is then utilised to construct a finite dimensional approximation for the differential forms appearing in the variational principle. These approximations are then used to construct a discrete functional which is then numerically extremised. This discertization leads to a mixed method as it uses independent approximations for differential forms related to stress and deformation gradient. The mixed variational principle is then specialized for 2D case, whose discrete approximation is applied to problems in nonlinear elasticity. An important feature of our FE technique is the lack of additional stabilization. From the numerical study, it is found that the present discretization also does not suffer form locking and related convergence issues., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2009.00275

In this work, we propose an automatic mesh generation algorithm, FlowMesher, which can be used to generate unstructured meshes for mesh domains in any shape with minimum (or even no) user intervention. The approach can generate high-quality simplex meshes directly from scanned images in OBJ format in 2D and 3D or just from a line drawing in 2-D. Mesh grading can be easily controlled also. The FlowMesher is robust and easy to be implemented and is useful for a variety of applications including surgical simulators. The core idea of the FlowMesher is that a mesh domain is considered as an "airtight container" into which fluid particles are "injected" at one or multiple selected interior points. The particles repel each other and occupy the whole domain somewhat like blowing up a balloon. When the container is full of fluid particles and the flow is stopped, a Delaunay triangulation algorithm is employed to link the fluid particles together to generate an unstructured mesh (which is then optimized using a combination of automated mesh smoothing and element removal in 3D). The performance of the FlowMesher is demonstrated by generating meshes for several 2D and 3D mesh domains including a scanned image of a bone.

A discrete-to-continuum transformation to model 2-D discrete lattices as energetically equivalent 1-D continuum beams is developed. The study is initiated in a classical setting but results in a non-classical two-scale micropolar beam model via a novel link within a unit cell between the second-order macrorotation-gradient and the micropolar antisymmetric shear deformation. The shear deformable micropolar beam is reduced to a couple-stress and two classical lattice beam models by successive approximations. The stiffness parameters for all models are given by the micropolar constitutive matrix. The four models are compared by studying stretching- and bending-dominated lattice core sandwich beams under various loads and boundary conditions. A classical 4th-order Timoshenko beam is an apt first choice for stretching-dominated beams, whereas the 6th-order micropolar model works for bending-dominated beams as well. The 6th-order couple-stress beam is often too stiff near point loads and boundaries. It is shown that the 1-D micropolar model leads to the exact 2-D lattice response in the absence of boundary effects even when the length of the 1-D beam (macrostructure) equals that of the 2-D unit cell (microstructure), that is, when L=l., Comment: This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action grant agreement No 745770 - SANDFECH - Micromechanics-based finite element modeling of sandwich structures. The preprint has been replaced by the accepted manuscript

The aim of this study is three-fold: (i) to present a general higher-order shell theory to analyze large deformations of thin or thick shell structures made of general compressible hyperelastic materials; (ii) to utilize the orthonormal or Cartans moving frame in the formulation of shell theory in contrast to the classical tensorial covariant coordinate system; and (iii) to present the nonlinear weak-form Galerkin finite element model for the given shell theory. The displacement field of a point on the line normal to the shell reference surface is approximated by the Taylor series or Legendre polynomials. The kinematics of motion in the assumed coordinate system is derived using the tools of exterior calculus. The use of an orthonormal moving frame makes it possible to represent kinematic quantities, e.g., determinant of the deformation gradient, in a far more efficient manner than the classical tensorial representation of the same with covariant bases. The manipulation of the various tensor used in the kinematics and dynamics of the structures can be carried out with ease and a more computationally efficient manner. The governing equation of the shell has been derived in the general surface coordinates. The methodology developed herein is very much algorithmic, and hence it can also be applied for any arbitrary interpolated surfaces with equal ease. The higher-order nature of the approximation of the displacement field makes the theory suitable for analyzing thick and thin shell structures. The compressible hyperelastic material model used as the constitutive relation of the material. The formulation presented herein can be specialized for various nonlinear hyperelastic constitutive models suitable for use, for example, in bio-mechanics and other soft-material problems (e.g., neo-Hookean material, Mooney-Rivlin material, Generalized power-law neo-Hookean material, and so on)., Comment: 39 pages, 26 figures, Submitted to journal

A gauge theory of solids with conformal symmetry is formulated to model various electromechanical and magnetomechanical coupling phenomena. If the pulled back metric of the current configuration (the right Cauchy-Green tensor) is scaled with a constant, the volumetric part of the Lagrange density changes while the isochoric part remains invariant. However, upon a position dependent scaling, the isochoric part also loses invariance. In order to restore the invariance of the isochoric part, a 1-form compensating field is introduced and the notion of a gauge covariant derivative is utilized to minimally replace the Lagrangian. In view of obvious similarities with the Weyl geometry, the Weyl condition is imposed through the Lagrangian and a minimal coupling is employed so the 1-form could evolve. On deriving the Euler-Lagrange equations based on the action functional, we observe a close similarity with the governing equations for flexoelectricity under isochoric deformation if the exact part of 1-form is interpreted as the electric field and the anti-exact part as the polarization vector. Next, we model piezoelectricity and electrostriction phenomena by contracting the Weyl condition in various ways. Applying the Hodge decomposition theorem on the 1-form which leads to the curl of a pseudo-vector field and a vector field, we also model magnetomechanical phenomena. Identifying the pseudo-vector field with magnetic potential and the vector part with magnetization, flexomagnetism, piezomagnetism and magnetostriction phenomena under isochoric deformation are also modeled. Finally, we consider an analytical solution of the equations for piezoelectricity to provide an illustration on the insightful information that the present approach potentially provides., Comment: 46 pages, 1 figure

We look for an enhancement of the correspondence model of peridynamics with a view to eliminating the zero-energy deformation modes. Since the non-local integral definition of the deformation gradient underlies the problem, we initially look for a remedy by introducing a class of localizing corrections to the integral. Since the strategy is found to afford only a reduction, and not complete elimination, of the oscillatory zero-energy deformation, we propose in the sequel an alternative approach based on the notion of sub-horizons. A most useful feature of the last proposal is that the setup, whilst providing the solution with the necessary stability, deviates only marginally from the original correspondence formulation. We also undertake a set of numerical simulations that attest to the remarkable efficacy of the sub-horizon based methodology., Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures

In this paper a mixed spectral element formulation is presented for planar, linear elasticity. The degrees of freedom for the stress are integrated traction components, i.e. surface force components. As a result the tractions between elements are continuous. The formulation is based on minimization of the complementary energy subject to the constraints that the stress field should satisfy equilibrium of forces and moments. The Lagrange multiplier which enforces equilibrium of forces is the displacement field and the Lagrange multiplier which enforces equilibrium of moments is the rotation. The formulation satisfies equilibrium of forces pointwise if the body forces are piecewise polynomial. Equilibrium of moments is weakly satisfied. Results of the method are given on orthogonal and curvilinear domains and an example with a point singularity is given., Comment: 32 pages, 27 figures, Article accepted in International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering

A continuum plasticity model for metals is presented from considerations of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Of specific interest is the application of a fluctuation relation that subsumes the second law of thermodynamics en route to deriving the evolution equations for the internal state variables. The modeling itself is accomplished in a two-temperature framework that appears naturally by considering the thermodynamic system to be composed of two weakly interacting subsystems, viz. a kinetic vibrational subsystem corresponding to the atomic lattice vibrations and a configurational subsystem of the slower degrees of freedom describing the motion of defects in a plastically deforming metal. When externally driven, the two subsystems, identified with their own temperatures, fall out of equilibrium. An apparently physical nature of the present model derives upon considering the dislocation density, which characterizes the configurational subsystem, as a state variable. The continuum model accommodates finite deformation and describes plastic deformation in a yield-free setup via the so-called microscopic force balance along with the more conventional macroscopic force balance. Though the theory here is essentially limited to face-centered cubic metals modelled with a single dislocation density as the internal variable, an extension to body-centered cubic metals and modelling with two internal variables with dislocation densities of two non-overlapping types are briefly touched upon., Comment: 31 pages, 3 figures

Built on the tenets of rational thermodynamics, this article proposes a theory of strain gradient thermo-visco-plasticity for isotropic polycrystalline materials under high strain rates. The effect of micro-inertia, which arises due to dynamically evolving microstructural defects, is brought to bear on the macro-continuum through a micro-force balance. Constitutive modelling of dissipative micro-stresses incorporates relaxation time parameters to account for the time lags of the dissipative fluxes in attaining a steady state. Augmentation of the micro-force balance with constitutive relations for the micro-stresses yields a non-local flow rule that reflects the effect of micro-inertia on the evolution of the plastic strain. A thermodynamically consistent derivation of temperature evolution is provided, thus replacing an empirical route. Numerical implementation of the proposal does not demand a computationally intensive return mapping algorithm. A two dimensional plane strain model of impact between two 4340 steel plates is used to numerically assess the influence that micro-inertial and relaxation time parameters as well as various length scales may have on the macro-continuum response., Comment: 45 pages; 28 figures

A state-based peridynamic formulation for linear elastic shells is presented. The emphasis is on introducing, possibly for the first time, a general surface based peridynamic model to represent the deformation characteristics of structures that have one physical dimension much smaller than the other two. A new notion of curved bonds is exploited to cater for force transfer between the peridynamic particles describing the shell. Starting with the three dimensional force and deformation states, appropriate surface based force, moment and several deformation states are arrived at. Upon application on the curved bonds, such states beget the necessary force and deformation vectors governing the motion of the shell. Correctness of our proposal on the peridynamic shell theory is numerically assessed against static deformation of spherical and cylindrical shells and flat plates.

A micropolar cohesive damage model for delamination of composites is proposed. The main idea is to embed micropolarity, which brings an additional layer of kinematics through the micro-rotation degrees of freedom within a continuum model to account for the micro-structural effects during delamination. The resulting cohesive model, describing the modified traction separation law, includes micro-rotational jumps in addition to displacement jumps across the interface. The incorporation of micro-rotation requires the model to be supplemented with physically relevant material length scale parameters, whose effects during delamination of modes I and II are brought forth using numerical simulations appropriately supported by experimental evidences.