The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

A mixed-enhanced formulation for tetrahedral finite elements

Taylor, Robert L.

UCB/SEMM-1999/02, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1999, 24 pages

This report considers the solution of problems in three-dimensional solid mechanics using tetrahedral finite elements. A formulation based on a mixed-enhanced treatment involving displacement, pressure, and volume effects is presented. The displacement and pressure are used as nodal quantities while volume effects and enhanced modes belong to individual elements. Both small and finite deformation problems are addressed, and sample solutions illustrate the performance of the formulation.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-99-02.pdf (1 MB)