AN INDEPENDENT REFINEMENT AND INTEGRATION PROCEDURE IN MULTIREGION FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS

An independent refinement and integration procedure is developed to co uple together independently modelled (global and local) regions in a s ingle analysis. The finite element models can have different levels of refinement and the nodes along the interface between them need not co incide with one another. A spline interpolation function that satisfie s the linear isotropic plate-bending differential equation is used to relate the local model interface nodal displacements to the global mod el interface displacements. The proposed independent refinement and in tegration procedure is validated by applying it to problems involving in-plane and out-of-plane deformations.