Stabilized Conforming Nodal Integration in The Natural Element Method Jeong PDF

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING
Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890 (DOI: 10.1002/nme.972)
Stabilized conforming nodal integration in the

natural-element method
Jeong Wahn Yoo1, , Brian Moran2, , and Jiun-Shyan Chen3,
1 Department
of Civil Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208, U.S.A.
of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd.,
Evanston, IL 60208, U.S.A.
3 Department of Civil Engineering, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, U.S.A.
2 Department
SUMMARY
A stabilized conforming nodal integration scheme is implemented in the natural neighbour method
in conjunction with non-Sibsonian interpolation. In this approach, both the shape functions and the
integration scheme are dened through use of rst-order Voronoi diagrams. The method illustrates
improved performance and signicant advantages over previous natural neighbour formulations. The
method also shows substantial promise for problems with large deformations and for the computation
of higher-order gradients. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS:
natural-element method; nodal integration; non-Sibsonian interpolant; material incompressibility; higher-order gradients; large deformation
1. INTRODUCTION
Meshless methods have been developed in recent years to circumvent restrictions imposed by
formal element connectivity requirements in traditional nite element methods. A broad class of
methods show tremendous promise for problems involving large deformations as well as moving
interfaces or discontinuities, including the element-free Galerkin method [1], the reproducing
kernel particle method [2], the natural-element method [3], h-p clouds [4], the partition of unity
nite element method [5], and the meshless local PetrovGalerkin method [6], to mention just
a few. An overview of developments in meshfree methods was given by Belytschko et al. [7]
and Li and Liu [8].
Correspondence
to: B. Moran, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd.,
Evanston, IL 60208, U.S.A.
b-moran@northwestern.edu
jw-yoo@northwestern.edu
E-mail: jschen@seas.ucla.edu
E-mail:
E-mail:
Contract/grant sponsor: National Science Foundation; contract/grant number: CMS-9732319

Contract/grant sponsor: Ofce of Naval Research; contract/grant number: N00014-01-1-0953
Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 23 January 2002

Revised 10 May 2002
Accepted 16 July 2003
862
J. W. YOO, B. MORAN AND J.-S. CHEN
In this paper, we present an approach for the solution of partial differential equations, with
applications to small and large strain elasticity, which belongs to the family of natural neighbour
methods. Sibson appears to have been the rst to introduce the notion of natural neighbours and
natural neighbour interpolation [9]. Braun and Sambridge adopted the concept in the Galerkin
method for partial differential equations and coined the name natural-element method (NEM)
[3]. Sukumar et al. explored the application of NEM to solid mechanics [10] and showed that
the method could be extended to problems requiring C 1 continuity through use of Bzier splines
[11]. Bueche et al. investigated the dispersive properties of NEM [12], and Reeves and Moran
showed the utility of NEM for contaminant transport problems [13]. Cueto et al. introduced a
modication of NEM based on -shapes, which rendered the Sibson shape functions conforming
on non-convex boundaries [14]. Sukumar et al. showed that the non-Sibsonian interpolant,
proposed by Belikov et al. [15], was precisely linear on non-convex boundaries, and they
presented a new implementation of NEM using the non-Sibsonian interpolant [16].
In the implementation of meshless methods, including natural neighbour methods, evaluation
of the integrals in the weak form has been an issue of concern. The integration is typically
done using Gauss quadrature over a background mesh. This integration scheme, however, has
been recognized to be far from optimal.
In this paper, we implement the stabilized nodal integration scheme, used by Chen et al.
[17], in a natural element method (for which we use the acronym, nodal-NEM). The nodalNEM is shown to satisfy the patch test to near machine precision. In the nodal-NEM, both
interpolant and integration scheme are dened through use of the Voronoi diagrams. No special
procedures are found necessary for the determination of neighbours, the implementation of
essential boundary and interface conditions, and the control of incompressibility constraints.
2. NON-SIBSONIAN INTERPOLANT
The construction of approximate solutions of differential equations by means of the nodal-NEM
is based on the so-called non-Sibsonian natural neighbour interpolant [15, 18]. In this section,
the construction and basic properties of the non-Sibsonian interpolants for a set of point sites
are illustrated.
2.1. Voronoi diagram
Let P := {p1 , p2 , . . . , pN } be a set of N distinct points, or sites, in Euclidean k-space, E k
[9, 19, 20]. The Voronoi diagram, also known as Dirichlet tessellation, of P is dened as the
subdivision of E k into N regions, one for each site in P . The Voronoi diagram of P is denoted
by Vor(P ). The region V(pI ) that corresponds to a site pI is called the Voronoi cell of pI
and is dened by
V(pI ) = {p E k : d(p, pI ) < d(p, pJ ) J = I }
(1)
where d is Euclidean distance. Each V(pI ) is an intersection of nitely many open half-spaces,
each being delimited by the perpendicular bisector hyperplane of a line segment pI pJ ; thus, it
is open, convex, and polyhedral. V(pI ) is bounded if and only if pI lies in the interior of the
convex hull of P .
Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890
STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION
863
p1
p2
p3
p6
p7
p4
p5
p8
p9
p 10
p 11
Figure 1. The Voronoi diagram and Delaunay graph of a set of sites in E 2 .
2.2. Delaunay graph

Corresponding to the subdivision of E k into the Voronoi polyhedra, a dual graph is obtained
by joining pairs of points, pI and pJ , whose Voronoi polyhedra have a hyperplane in common.
The Delaunay graph DG(P ) of P is the dual graph whose joins are straight line segments and
is a simplicial subdivision of E k . Any Delaunay triangulation of P maximizes the minimum
angle over all triangulations of P . Figure 1 shows the Voronoi diagram Vor(P ) and Delaunay
graph DG(P ) in E 2 .
2.3. Interpolation formula
A eld u is interpolated from its values on a set of sites, uI = u(pI ), in E k according to the
formula
n

uh =
I uI
(2)
I =1
where I are functions of the co-ordinates, and n is the number of neighbours. Dene
*V(pI , pJ ), which may be an empty set, by
I ) V(p
J ), J = I }
*V(pI , pJ ) = {p E k1 : p V(p
(3)
I ) is the closure of V(pI ) [15, 16, 18]. Then, the interpolation function I at
where V(p
p employed in the non-Sibson method is obtained by treating p as a site in the Voronoi
tessellation and is written as
I =
(|*V(p, pI )|)/d(p, pI )
J [(|*V(p, pJ )|)/d(p, pJ )]
(4)
where | | denotes the Lebesgue measure in E k1 . The neighbours used in the interpolation
are determined naturally from the construction of Dirichlet cells: these are the sites whose
864
( p , p2 )
p2
p3
p
d ( p , p2 )
p7
p6
p8
Figure 2. The Voronoi cell and neighbours of a site p added in P .
Dirichlet cells have a common face with the V(p). Figure 2 illustrates a portion of newly
calculated Dirichlet tessellation, from which the interpolation function is obtained, as a site p
is added in P given in Figure 1. The ve points, p2 , p3 , p6 , p7 , and p8 , shown in Figure 2,
are the natural neighbours of the site p.
2.4. Properties
The properties of the non-Sibson method are described in References [15, 16, 18]; thus, only
select ones are presented here without verication.
The non-Sibson interpolation satises the partition of unity; that is, a domain is covered
by overlapping subdomains I associated with I that are non-zero only in I and have the
property,

I = 1 in
(5)
I
[5, 7]. In addition, the equality,

I
I (x xI ) = 0
in
(6)
also holds, where xI are the position vectors of pI . Equations (5) and (6) imply that the
interpolant spans the space of linear polynomials in E k , which is a necessary condition of
convergence for partial differential equations of order 2.
From (4), the non-Sibson interpolant has the property,
I (pJ ) = I J
(7)
Furthermore, it is precisely linear on the boundary of the domain. This makes for straightforward
imposition of essential or Dirichlet boundary conditions as in nite elements. Note also that this,
in conjunction with regional interpolation, leads to satisfaction of material interface conditions
as in nite elements.
865
3. NATURAL NEIGHBOUR FORMULATION

The Galerkin method is used to produce nodal natural neighbour formulations. In this section,
the procedure for linear elastostatics is outlined, briey.
3.1. Linear elastostatics
Consider a domain , bounded by . The equilibrium equations are given by
+b=0
in
(8)
where = T is the Cauchy stress and b is body force per unit volume. When displacement
gradients are everywhere small compared to unity, the classical elastic constitutive equations
are
=C:
(9)
where = s u is the small strain tensor. For an isotropic material, the elastic moduli C take
the form
Cij rs = ij rs + (ir j s + is j r )
(10)
in which and are the Lam constants. On the boundary = t u ,

n = t
on t
(11)
u = u
on u
(12)
where n is the unit outward normal, and t and u are prescribed tractions and displacements
on t and u , respectively.
3.2. Galerkin method
The discrete equations are generated from the weak form (or principle of virtual work),

s u : C : s u d =
u b d +
u t d
(13)
t
where u
are trial functions, and u
are test functions. Here H 1 () denotes the
Sobolev space of functions with square integrable derivatives in , and H01 () is the subspace
of H 1 with vanishing values on u . We begin by establishing trial and test families of functions
in the form of Equation (2). By substituting the approximations, uh and uh , into the weak
form and invoking the arbitrariness of virtual nodal displacements, Equation (13) yields the
standard formula
H01
H1
Kd = f
(14)
where the stiffness matrix K and external nodal force f are given by

KI J =
BTI CBJ d
h
(15)
866
in which B is the conventional strain-displacement matrix, and

I b d +
I t d
fI =
h
ht
(16)
Here h is a nite-dimensional subspace of , which is spanned by the shape functions:

h = span{I }
(17)
in which h refers to a measure of distance between the sites.
4. STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION

The integrals of terms in the discrete equations can be evaluated numerically, rather than
analytically. A conventional way to do this in meshfree methods is application of Gauss rules
to a background mesh for spatial integration. The integration, however, might be inaccurate
since the integrands are not polynomials and the supports of the integrands do not coincide
with the integration cells in general [21]. In this paper, a nodal integration scheme based on
the Dirichlet tessellation is used. This simplies the data structure and leads to signicant
improvements in accuracy over Gaussian quadrature on background cells.
4.1. Control of instabilities
Nodal integration typically exhibits spatial instability resulting from underintegration of the
weak form [22]. In one stabilization procedure (originally developed for strain localization
problems), the strain measure is replaced by a non-local approximation [17, 23]. The non-local
form of strain is represented as a weighted average given by

(s) =
W (x; x s)(x) d
(18)
where W is a weight function that possesses the properties,

W d = 1
W 0 and
(19)
and has compact support.

4.2. Integration formula
Suppose L associated with the site pL to be
L = {p E k : p V(pL )}
and W to be a step function dened by
W (x; x xL ) =
A1
L
if x L
if x
/ L
(20)
(21)
867
where AL is the Lebesgue measure of L . Incorporating Equation (21) into Equation (18)
gives

1
1
1
s
ij (xL ) =
(ui nj + uj ni ) d
( u)ij d =
(22)
AL L
AL L 2
where L are the boundaries of L , and ni are the components of the unit outward normal.
The divergence theorem has been used in the last of Equation (22). The stiffness matrix is
obtained by substitution of uh and uh into Equation (22) and the result into Equation (13).
Then, Equation (15) becomes

T
J d = B
TI CB
I (xL )CB J (xL )AL
(23)
B
KI J =
h
h
and
L L = and the integrands are constant over each L . Here the non-local straindisplacement matrix B in E 2 is given by
0
I n1
0
I (xL ) = 1
I n2
B
(24)
d
AL L
I n2 I n1
Note that the nodal-NEM can be regarded as a class of assumed-strain methods [24] with
natural neighbour interpolants, resulting in subdomain collocation over L .
4.3. Contour integrals
Equation (23) involves hyperplane contour integrals over L . The integrals are approximated
by successive application of Gauss rules to each face of L . Figure 3(a) shows the contour
integration over six faces of subdomain 8 , and Figure 3(b) illustrates the integration over
ve faces of subdomain 4 ; i.e. V(p4 ) cut by the domain boundary . Note that Chen
et al. [17] used a trapezoidal rule on the facets of the contour. As will be shown below, this
approach can lead to difculties when used in conjunction with non-Sibsonian interpolation.
5. REMARKS ON THE INTEGRATION SCHEME

5.1. Convergence
The assumed eld for u has C 0 continuity and contains a complete polynomial of degree 1 as
discussed in Section 2. Furthermore, the preceding stabilized integration procedure, regardless
of the quadrature rule used for the contour integrals, satises the constraint,

T
T
I n d
(25)
BI d = BI (xL )AL =
h
ht
which comes from the weak form representing a state of constant rst derivatives of uh .
See, e.g. Chen et al. [17] for a discussion of the integration constraint. The nodal-NEM,
consequently, guarantees convergence to correct results for second-order PDEs.
868
p2
p3
p6
p8
p7
p9
Vor( P )
p 11
(a)
p1
Vor( P )
p3
p4
p5
p6
(b)
Figure 3. Contour integration over the L (i.e. 8 and 4 ) of site pL :

(a) V(pL ) ; and (b) V(pL ) .
5.2. Caution for choice of quadrature

Instabilities arising from shortcomings in the nodal integration procedure are controlled by
using the smoothed strain. However, application of the trapezoidal rule to the contour integrals
might produce zero strain energy owing to the intrinsic properties of non-Sibson interpolation.
Consider a square domain E 2 with a set of ve nodes, whose distribution and Voronoi
tessellation in are shown in Figure 4. Because the interpolation functions I vanish on the
domain boundary for all interior sites pI
/ [16], the shape function 1 is zero at all
1 = 0
sampling points of the trapezoidal rule which are indicated in Figure 4(a); and thus, B
at all nodes. Therefore, according to Equation (23), the strain energy in
U =
1
2
dT Kd
(26)
869
p2
p5
p2
p5
p1
p3
p1
p4
(a)
p3
p4
(b)
Figure 4. Mesh of ve sites, showing: (a) sampling points of the trapezoidal rule and its possible
mechanism; and (b) Gauss point locations for the case of one-point quadrature on facets of L .
will vanish for modes dT = (d1T 0 0 0 0). The foregoing instabilities can appear in various
meshes; consequently, the trapezoidal rule should be employed in the nodal-NEM with caution.
No zero-energy mode, on the other hand, is displayed by use of Gauss quadrature for the
contour integration. Figure 4(b) shows Gauss point locations for rst-order quadrature on each
facet of the contour, L .
5.3. Material incompressibility

As Poissons ratio approaches 0.5, penalty constraints arise naturally, which can easily lead
to locking difculties. The locking difculties, however, are avoided for all practical purposes
in the nodal-NEM by virtue of the integration scheme. To illustrate, write the stiffness matrix
K in the form
KIJ =

L
TI (xL )CG B
J (xL )AL +
B

L
TI (xL )CK B
J (xL )AL
B
(27)
Here CG and CK are given by
CijGrs = G ir j s + is j r
2
3
ij rs

and
CijKrs = Kij rs
(28)
where G is the shear modulus and K is the bulk modulus. Since K approaches innity
as approaches 0.5, the incompressibility constraint is enforced at each node by the second
summation in Equation (27). Thus optimal constraint ratios, r = 2 for two-dimensional problems
and r = 3 for three-dimensional problems, are usually achieved in the nodal-NEM. Here the
constraint ratio r is dened as the ratio of the number of active d.o.f. in a domain to the
number of penalty constraints. Accordingly, no modication of the method is required to handle
problems with near incompressible behaviour as will be seen below.
870
5.4. Higher-order gradients

Higher-order gradients may be readily obtained in the nodal-NEM by recursive application of
the non-local del operator ,

u(s)
=
W (x; x s)u(x) d
(29)
Suppose L and W to be dened by Equations (20) and (21). We rst calculate nodal displacement gradients

hi (xL ))j = 1
Jiju L = (u
nj duiI
(30)
AL L I
We then obtain nodal displacement gradients of order 2,

1
u h
nk dJiju I
((Jij ) (xL ))k =
AL L I
(31)
provided that Ju can be interpolated from nodal values. This process can be repeated until the
gradients of desired order are obtained, though accuracy in the computed quantities is expected
to be decrease progressively with every step.
A class of theory, called strain-gradient plasticity, has gained popularity recently, in which
higher-order gradient contributions are included. The common practice in nite element implementation is to use C 1 interpolation functions for the higher-order gradients. The continuity
requirements on the shape functions, however, might be relaxed in the present method, afforded
by the above-mentioned procedure.
6. DISCRETIZATION FOR NON-LINEAR ANALYSIS

In this section, discrete momentum equations are developed for large deformation problems.
We consider a Lagrangian formulation and emphasize the required kinematic expressions in the
following discussion.
6.1. Deformation and strain
Among several possible measures of nite strain, the deformation-gradient and Green strain
tensors are considered. In the following, we shall designate the reference conguration by a
subscript 0. We begin by employing the same interpolations for the co-ordinates and displacements:

xh = I (X)xI (t) and uh =
I (X)uI (t)
(32)
I
where I are given by Equation (4). The nodal deformation gradients are calculated using the
non-local vector operator and the position vector xh [25]:

F L = 0 xh (XL , t) = 0 I (XL )xI (t)
(33)
I
where, from Equation (29),

0 I (XL ) =
871

0
W (X; X XL )I (X) d0
Using Equations (20) and (21), we have

1
Fij L = ( 0 I (XL ))j xiI =
A0L
(34)

0L
I nj d0 xiI
(35)
From here onward, the discretization requires only straightforward manipulation. With F L as
dened in (33), the nodal Green strain tensors can be evaluated from the usual expression for
the strain tensor in terms of the deformation gradient:
T
FL I)
E L = 21 (F L
(36)
6.2. Equilibrium of forces

In the Lagrangian approach, we express the equilibrium of forces using the principle of virtual
displacements, which is

u 0 b d0 +
u t0 d0
FT : P d0 = 0
(37)
0
0t
0
where 0 is the mass per unit reference volume, b is the body force per unit mass, and P is
the nominal stress. Substituting the approximations, uh and uh , into the weak form as we did
in linear analysis, we obtain
f ext f int = 0
(38)
in which the external and internal nodal forces are given by

ext
I 0 b d0 +
I t0 d0
fI =
h0
h0t

fIint
P BI d0 =
T
h0

L
(39)

h0L
PT BI d0
(40)
where BI = I . Employing nodal integration, replaces and Equation (40) becomes

T
I L A0L
fIint = P L
(41)
B
L
where P L are the nodal nominal stresses, the evaluation of which depends on the material
I L = 0 I (XL ).
model used, and B
7. LINEARIZATION OF INTERNAL NODAL FORCES
In an incremental solution procedure, the equilibrium equation (38) is linearized about the
converged state at the end of the previous increment and an iterative procedure is used to
872
obtain convergence for the current increment. In the following, the linearization procedure
for the internal nodal forces is illustrated within the context of the nodal natural neighbour
formulation.
7.1. Tangent stiffness
We begin by taking the time derivative of Equation (41) in which P L are the only timedependent variables:
fIint =
T

I L A0L
I L A0L = (F L S L + F L S L )B
P L B
L
(42)
T where S
L are the nodal second PiolaKirchhoff stresses.
Note that we write P L = S L F L
Considering a hyperelastic material, in which stress is calculated from a strain energy function
, we have
2
* (E L )
: EL = CSE
S L =
L : EL
*EL *EL
(43)
By substitution of Equation (43) into Equation (42), the rate of internal nodal forces has the
form
geo
mat
fiIint = (KiIj
jJ
J + KiIj J )u
(44)
Here the material and geometric tangent stiffnesses are

mat
KiIj
J =
geo
KiIj J =

L

L
L SEL L
Cklpq Bpqj J AL
B kliI
0
(45)
L L L
B kI
Skl BlJ ij AL
0
(46)
in which B L are dened by

L L
Fkj )
B ijLkI = sym(B iI
(47)
(i,j )
8. EXAMPLE PROBLEMS
Benchmark tests on a variety of problems in elasticity are presented. A Youngs modulus of
3107 psi and a Poissons ratio of 0.25 are used unless stated otherwise. A second-order Gauss
rule is applied to the contour integration around the nodal domain boundary. Three-point Gauss
quadrature for triangles is employed for the NEM and constant-strain FEM when results are
compared with those of the nodal-NEM.
8.1. The patch test
The patch test was originally designed to determine the convergence behaviour of non-conforming elements [26]. In the context of meshless methods, the test represents a check on the
(a)
873
(b)
(c)
Figure 5. Patches for a unit square domain: (a) 25 nodes; (b) 8 nodes; and (c) 70 nodes.
validity of an approximation and the integration of the weak form. Though a meshless method
that fails the test may still provide convergence, the patch test serves as a sufcient condition
for correct convergence of a meshless formulation provided that the method to be tested is
stable.
Procedure: Figure 5 shows three patches for a unit square domain E 2 in plane stress
conditions, and comprised of 25, 8, and 70 nodes. A linear displacement eld is imposed on
boundary nodes of the patches; i.e. ui = xi . Internal nodes are neither loaded nor restrained.
The L2 () norm, dened by

u uh L2 () =
1/2
(ui uhi )(ui uhi ) d
(48)
is used to examine the computed results.

Results: Table I illustrates relative errors in the L2 () norm of the results, where data for the
NEM are obtained from Reference [10] and the nodal-NEM results are presented for rst- and
874
Table I. Relative errors in the L2 () norm of the patch tests.

Patch
Figure 5(a)
Figure 5(b)
Figure 5(c)
NEM
Nodal-NEM: order 1
Nodal-NEM: order 2
7.5 104
9.3 103
4.4 103
2.7 1016
4.8 1016
1.2 1015
2.4 1016
8.6 1016
1.2 1015
x2
P
D
x1
Figure 6. Cantilever beam of unit thickness under transverse end load P .
second-order Gauss quadrature of the contour integral. The nodal-NEM results show signicant
improvements in accuracy over the NEM with the former achieving near machine precision.
Accordingly, the foregoing results suggest that the effects of inexact contour integration are
quite minimal, unlike those of inexact background mesh integration.
8.2. Cantilever beam I
The cantilever beam problem shown in Figure 6 is solved using four different meshes and
three different methods for each mesh. Here, we seek the relation between the number of d.o.f.
in its discretized form and solution error.
Closed-form solution: The exact solution of the problem is given by the theory of elasticity
as [27]:

P x2
3D 2
2
u1 =
(6L 3x1 )x1 + (2 + )x2
(1 + )
(49)
6EI
2
u2 =
P
[(3L x1 )x12 + 3(L x1 )x22 ]
6EI
(50)
where I is the moment of inertia of the beam cross section. The corresponding stresses are
11 =
P (L x1 )x2
I
22 = 0
P
12 =
2I
(51)
(52)
D2
x22
4

(53)
875
Figure 7. Mesh of 85 nodes for a cantilever beam.
Relative error
10-1
10
-2
10
-3
FEM
NEM
nodal-NEM
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
Figure 8. Convergence of uh with mesh renement.
Procedure: Four uniform meshes of 85, 297, 1105, and 1701 nodes are used to examine
the discretization errors in the beam models. A mesh of 85 nodes is shown in Figure 7.
Displacements and tractions calculated from Equations (49)(53) are prescribed on u and
t , respectively. Results are presented using plane stress and the parameter values, P =
1000 psi, L = 4 in, and D = 1 in.
Results: Figure 8 illustrates the convergence of uh with renement, where relative errors in
L2 () norm are plotted against dimensionless length h, dened by
1
h=
N
(54)
Here N is the number of degrees of freedom in the domain. The results suggest that convergence
is quadratic for all three methods: the computed convergence rates of the FEM, NEM, and
nodal-NEM are 2.02, 2.18, and 2.06, respectively.
876
15000
Normal stress (psi)
7500
-7500
Exact
nodal-NEM
-15000
-0.5
-0.25
0
x2 (in.)
0.25
0.5
Figure 9. Exact and computed normal stresses in a cantilever beam.
250
Exact
nodal-NEM
Shear stress (psi)
-250
-750
-1250
-1750
-0.5
-0.25
0.25
0.5
x 2 (in.)
Figure 10. Exact and computed shear stresses in a cantilever beam.
Figures 9 and 10 show the comparison between exact and computed stresses along x1 = 2 in,
where approximate stresses are computed by the nodal-NEM using a mesh of 1105 nodes. The
solution for the nodal-NEM is in good agreement with the exact solution.
877
Figure 11. Innite plate with a hole under uniform tensile load
0 .
8.3. Innite plate with a circular hole

The classical problem of an innite plate with a circular hole shown in Figure 11 is presented
to illustrate that ill-conditioning from material incompressibility is avoided in the nodal-NEM.
Closed-form solution: The exact solution of the problem is given by Szab and Babuka
[28]:

a2 3
3 a4
cos 4
(55)
cos 2 + cos 4 +
11 =
0 1 2
2
2 r4
r

2

3 a4
a
1
22 =
0 2
cos 2 cos 4
cos 4
(56)
2
2 r4
r

2

3 a4
a
1
12 =
0 2
sin 2 + sin 4 +
sin 4
(57)
2
2 r4
r
The displacement components corresponding to the stresses, without rigid body motion
terms, are

0 a r
a
a3
u1 =
(58)
( + 1) cos + 2 ((1 + ) cos + cos 3) 2 3 cos 3
8 a
r
r

a
a3
0 a r
u2 =
( 3) sin + 2 ((1 ) sin + sin 3) 2 3 sin 3
(59)
8 a
r
r
where is dened in terms of Poissons ratio by
3 4 in plane strain
= 3
in plane stress
1+
(60)
878
Figure 12. Mesh of 1345 nodes for plate with a hole.
Procedure: The unbounded plate is truncated and modelled as a square with a central hole
of diameter equal to one fth of the square width. Symmetry is exploited by analysing only
one quadrant of the plate. The mesh of 1345 nodes used is shown in Figure 12. Displacement
boundary conditions for symmetric loading are prescribed on u , the symmetry boundaries,
and tractions corresponding to the stresses from Equations (55) to (57) are imposed on t .
Plane strain conditions are enforced. Numerical results are presented using parameter values,
0 = 1 psi and a = 1 in.

Results: Figure 13 illustrates the behaviour of the error in the problem as Poissons ratio
approaches 0.5. What is plotted as the relative error is the relative L2 () norm from Equation (48). As expected, no evidence of mesh locking is observed in the nodal-NEM whereas
signicant locking is evident for both FEM and NEM as the incompressibility limit of = 0.5
is approached.
Figures 14 and 15 show the comparison between exact and computed stresses along = /2.
The computed stresses are obtained by the NEM and nodal-NEM using = 0.25. The nodalNEM solutions for both
11 and
22 are in good agreement with the analytical solutions. For
near incompressible material, numerical solutions are compared with the exact solutions in
Figures 16 and 17, suggesting that the nodal-NEM yields acceptable results despite the numerical difculties caused by round-off as approaches 0.5. Note here that the constant-strain
triangle elements are used for the FEM and they are known to lock. Also, in the NEM
formulation, no modications to avoid locking were implemented.
879
0.14
FEM
NEM
nodal-NEM
Relative error
0.1
0.06
0.02
-0.02
0.25
0.49
0.4999999 0.499999999999
Poissons ratio
Figure 13. Errors in uh for various Poissons ratios.

3.2
Exact
NEM
nodal-NEM
Stress (psi)
2.6
1.4
0.8
3
r (in.)
Figure 14. Exact and computed stresses

11 of plate with a hole: = 0.25.
8.4. Innite plate with an inclusion

In the following example we illustrate the application of the nodal-NEM to a problem with
a material discontinuity. The problem of an inclusion with constant eigenstrain in an innite
plate shown in Figure 18 is considered.
880
0.45
Exact
NEM
nodal-NEM
Stress (psi)
0.3
0.15
3
r (in.)

3.2
Exact
NEM
nodal-NEM
Stress (psi)
2.6
1.4
0.8
3
r (in.)

881
3.2
Exact
NEM
nodal-NEM
Stress (psi)
2.6
1.4
0.8
3
r (in.)

u = u
t =t
at r = R
-phase
-phase
u = 0 at infinity
Figure 18. Inclusion with uniform eigenstrain in an innite plate.
882
Figure 19. Mesh of 625 nodes for plate with an inclusion.
Closed-form solution: The exact solution is obtained for u = 0 at r = and given by

Cordes and Moran [29]:
if r R
C1 r
(61)
ur =
2
C1 R
if r R
r
u = 0
(62)
where
C1 =
( + )
+ +
(63)
Here is a constant dilatational strain in the phase.

Procedure: The innite plate is represented as a circle with diameter sufciently large compared to that of inclusion. Symmetry is exploited by analysing one quadrant of the model.
The mesh used on quadrant is shown in Figure 19 and is comprised of 625 nodes: 92 in the
inclusion, 13 in the interface, and 520 in the matrix. Displacement boundary conditions for
symmetric loading are imposed on u , the symmetry boundaries, while t are traction-free.
Plane strain conditions are assumed. Results are obtained using parameter values, = 497.16,
= 390.63, and = 338.35, corresponding to E = 1000, = 0.28, E = 900, and =
0.33. The values = 0.01, R = 5, and plate radius of 200 are also used in the calculations.
883
0.04
Exact
nodal-NEM
Radial displacement
0.03
0.02
0.01
25
50
r
75
100
Figure 20. Exact and computed displacements ur of plate with an inclusion.
0.01
Exact
nodal-NEM
Radial strain
0.005
-0.005
-0.01
25
50
r
75
100
Figure 21. Exact and computed strains rr of plate with an inclusion.
884
0.008
Exact
nodal-NEM
Hoop strain
0.005
0.002
-0.001
25
50
r
75
100
Figure 22. Exact and computed strains of plate with an inclusion.
Radial stress
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
Exact
nodal-NEM
25
50
r
75
100

rr of plate with an inclusion.
885
Hoop stress
-3
Exact
nodal-NEM
-6
25
50
r
75
100

of plate with an inclusion.
Results: The nodal-NEM and exact

discrepancy at large radii observed in
difference between an innite medium
solution is in good agreement with the
computed results.
solutions are compared in Figures 2024. The slight

Figure 20 is due to modelling error, caused by the
and its nite model. Apart from that, the nodal-NEM
exact solution, and no oscillations are observed in the
8.5. Cantilever beam II

The cantilever beam problem outlined in Section 8.2 is considered again using a uniform mesh
of 1701 nodes. The method for higher-order gradient evaluation, suggested in Section 5, is
used to calculate second derivatives of displacement.
Results: Displacement gradients of order 2 are evaluated and compared with exact solutions
in Figures 2527, along x2 = 0 in. The nodal-NEM and analytical solutions are seen to be in
good agreement.
Remarks: For the assumed-gradient elds dened in this method, the gradients appear to be
optimal (but not necessarily most accurate) sampled at the centers of L . The gradients obtained
at pL of which V(pL ) , thus, are often inaccurate because those nodes are unlikely the
points of optimal accuracy for gradients. It is immediately evident that further inaccuracy of
the same kind would be developed for higher-order gradient evaluation, which explains the
discrepancy of the nodal-NEM solution from the exact solution shown in Figure 26. Note that
similar problems exist and have been widely pursued in nite element analysis. Indeed a viable
recovery procedure for gradients at nodes would be worth investigating for the nodal-NEM,
such as the recovery by equilibration of patches (REP) that has been devised in the nite
element approximation.
886
0.0018
Exact
nodal-NEM
0.0014
u1,12
0.001
0.0006
0.0002
-0.0002
2
x1 (in.)
Figure 25. Exact and computed u1,12 of a cantilever beam.
0.0002
-0.0002
u 2,11
-0.0006
-0.001
-0.0014
Exact
nodal-NEM
-0.0018
2
x1 (in.)
887
0.0001
u2,22
-0.0001
-0.0003
Exact
nodal-NEM
-0.0005
2
x1 (in.)
8.6. Large deformation of a cantilever beam

The cantilever beam problem shown in Figure 6 is solved in order to test the nodal-NEM in
large deformation problems.
Beam theory: From the solution to the problem of the elastica, expression for u2e , the vertical
displacement of the end of the beam, is given in terms of an elliptic integral [30]:
u2e
=1
L
4EI
P L2
1 k 2 sin2 t dt
(64)
1
= arcsin
k 2
(65)
in which

k=
1 + sin e
2
and
Here Equation (64) can be solved by using corresponding values of P and e , the angle of
rotation of the end of the beam, that are determined from

2
P L2
dt
=
(66)

EI
1 k 2 sin2 t
Procedure: A beam of L = 20 in and D = 1 in is modelled by a regular mesh of 31 7
nodes. The material is assumed to be an isotropic Kirchhoff material with E = 3 107 psi and
888
0.9
u2e / L
0.6
0.3
Elastica
FEM
nodal-NEM
2.5
7.5
10
PL / EI
Figure 28. Large deections of a cantilever beam.
= 0, dened by
S L = C : E L
(67)
Here C is a constant elasticity tensor and takes an identical form to that given in Equation (10).
The solution of the system of non-linear equations is obtained by the NewtonRaphson method.
Results: The numerically predicted response is compared with the response calculated using
beam theory and FEM in Figure 28. Here the four-node quadrilateral elements are used for
the nite element solution. The results suggest that the kinematic descriptions of nodal-NEM
admit the accurate representation of the geometric non-linear behaviour.
9. CONCLUSION
We present a class of natural neighbour methods which shows signicant advantages over
the FEM and previous NEM implementations. In particular, patch tests are satised to near
machine precision, and near incompressible problems are solved without any modication of
the integration scheme.
In the nodal-NEM, stresses and strains are dened and computed at nodes, which would be
suitable for problems involving large deformations with adaptive renement and path-dependent
variables. In addition, higher-order gradients are produced accurately by repeated application
of the same non-local gradient operator on which the nodal integration scheme is based. The
889
method, consequently, shows substantial promise for problems in large deformation plasticity
with or without higher-order gradients.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful for the support of the National Science Foundation through Grant No.
CMS-9732319 and the Ofce of Naval Research through Contract N00014-01-1-0953 to Northwestern
University. Helpful discussions with Ted Belytschko and Natarajan Sukumar are gratefully acknowledged.
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890 (DOI: 10.1002/nme.972)

Stabilized conforming nodal integration in the

Contract/grant sponsor: National Science Foundation; contract/grant number: CMS-9732319

Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 23 January 2002

J. W. YOO, B. MORAN AND J.-S. CHEN

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION

Figure 1. The Voronoi diagram and Delaunay graph of a set of sites in E 2 .

2.2. Delaunay graph

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

J. W. YOO, B. MORAN AND J.-S. CHEN

Figure 2. The Voronoi cell and neighbours of a site p added in P .

[5, 7]. In addition, the equality,

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION

3. NATURAL NEIGHBOUR FORMULATION

in which and  are the Lam constants. On the boundary = t u ,

Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

J. W. YOO, B. MORAN AND J.-S. CHEN

in which B is the conventional strain-displacement matrix, and

Here h is a nite-dimensional subspace of , which is spanned by the shape functions:

in which h refers to a measure of distance between the sites.

4. STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION

where W is a weight function that possesses the properties,

and has compact support.

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION

5. REMARKS ON THE INTEGRATION SCHEME

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

J. W. YOO, B. MORAN AND J.-S. CHEN

Figure 3. Contour integration over the L (i.e. 8 and 4 ) of site pL :

5.2. Caution for choice of quadrature

STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION

5.3. Material incompressibility

Here CG and CK are given by

CijGrs = G ir j s + is j r

CijKrs = Kij rs

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

J. W. YOO, B. MORAN AND J.-S. CHEN

5.4. Higher-order gradients

the non-local del operator ,

6. DISCRETIZATION FOR NON-LINEAR ANALYSIS

Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION

where, from Equation (29),

W (X; X XL )I (X) d0

Using Equations (20) and (21), we have

6.2. Equilibrium of forces

in which the external and internal nodal forces are given by

where BI = I . Employing nodal integration, replaces and Equation (40) becomes

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

J. W. YOO, B. MORAN AND J.-S. CHEN

Here the material and geometric tangent stiffnesses are

in which B L are dened by

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

STABILIZED CONFORMING NODAL INTEGRATION

is used to examine the computed results.

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2004; 60:861890

in which and are the Lam constants. On the boundary = t u ,

Here is a constant dilatational strain in the phase.

Figure 22. Exact and computed strains of plate with an inclusion.