Aj. Abbo et Sw. Sloan, AN AUTOMATIC LOAD STEPPING ALGORITHM WITH ERROR CONTROL, International journal for numerical methods in engineering, 39(10), 1996, pp. 1737-1759
This paper presents an algorithm for controlling the error in non-line
ar finite element analysis which is caused by the use of finite load s
teps. In contrast to most recent schemes, the proposed technique is no
n-iterative and treats the governing load-deflection relations as a sy
stem of ordinary differential equations. This permits the governing eq
uations to be integrated adaptively where the step size is controlled
by monitoring the local truncation error. The latter is measured by co
mputing the difference between two estimates of the displacement incre
ments for each load step, with the initial estimate being found from t
he first-order Euler scheme and the improved estimate being found from
the second-order modified Euler Scheme. If the local truncation error
exceeds a specified tolerance, then the load step is abandoned and th
e integration is repeated with a smaller load step whose size is found
by local extrapolation. Local extrapolation is also used to predict t
he size of the next load step following a successful update. In order
to control not only the local load path error, but also the global loa
d path error, the proposed scheme incorporates a correction for the un
balanced forces. Overall, the cost of the automatic error control is m
odest since it requires only one additional equation solution for each
successful load step. Because the solution scheme is non-iterative an
d founded on successful techniques for integrating systems of ordinary
differential equations, it is particularly robust. To illustrate the
ability of the scheme to constrain the load path error to lie near a d
esired tolerance, detailed results are presented for a variety of elas
toplastic boundary value problems.