Further results for enhanced strain methods with isoparametric elements (Q2564576)

The enhanced strain finite element method is investigated with particular attention given to the analysis of the method for isoparametric elements. It is shown that the results established earlier for affine-equivalent meshes carry over to the case of isoparametric elements. That is, the method is stable and convergent provided that a set of three criteria is satisfied and, for plane elements at least, convergence is at the same rate as in the standard method. A procedure for recovering the stress is shown to lead to an approximate stress which converges at the optimal rate of the actual stress. With regard to computations, a new basis for enhanced strains is introduced, and numerical results are presented.