Elasto-Plastic Analysis Of Structures Using Hexahedrical Elements With Eight Nodes And One-Point Quadrature

Abstract

The main purposes of this work are the formulation and application of a computational
algorithm for the elasto-plastic static analysis of structures, including finite displacements and
rotations. An hexahedrical isoparametric finite element with eight nodes and one-point quadrature is
used. Mechanisms to avoid hourglass modes as well as volumetric and shear locking are introduced. A
corotational formulation is employed to deal with the geometrically nonlinear analysis, whereas an
explicit algorithm (based in Euler’s scheme) is implemented for the elasto-plastic analysis. The applied
constitutive models include the Mohr-Coulomb as well as the Von Mises yield criterion with isotropic
hardening. Numerical examples with highly nonlinear behavior are presented to demonstrate the range
of applicability of the formulation.