Numerical solution of a bending-torsion model for elastic rods (Q2217867)

From the mathematical point of view the authors carry out a finite element discretization, based on linear and cubic elements, of a minimization problem representing the total of the energy functional attached to a general elastic rod. Actually, the discretization is based on a reformulation of the energy functional that provides coercivity properties even when the frame constraints are only approximately satisfied. For the iterative minimization scheme applied, the convergence (Gamma) and stability is proved. A lot of interesting numerical experiments are reported.