A 3-DIMENSIONAL EXPLICIT ELEMENT-FREE GALERKIN METHOD

The formulation and implementation of a three-dimensional meshless met hod, the element-free Galerkin (EFG) method, are described. The formul ation is intended for dynamic problems with geometric and material non -linearities solved with explicit time integration, but some of the de velopments are applicable to other solution methods. The mechanical fo rmulation is posed in the reference configuration so that the shape fu nctions and their derivatives need to be computed only once, A method for speeding up the calculation of shape functions and their derivativ es is presented Results are presented for sloshing problems and Taylor bar impact problems, including an impact problem in which the bar imp acts with an angle of obliquity. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.