Two-mesh refinement indicators and adaptivity in non-linear explicit finite element analysis of shells using LS-DYNA

Two-mesh refinement indicators based on the gradients of effective stresses and effective plastic strains, respectively, are proposed for adaptive fin ite element analysis of the large deformation, materially non-linear dynami c response of shells. The refinement strategy consists of equi-distributing the variation of stresses or plastic strains over the elements of the mesh . A program module for implementing these refinement indicators has been de veloped and coupled with the general non-linear finite element explicit cod e LS-DYNA [1]. Numerical examples including both material and geometric non -linearities are presented. It is shown that these indicators can effective ly identify those finite elements, which have high gradients of stresses an d strains so that the mesh is refined in the region's undergoing the most s evere deformations. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.