A VARIANT OF THE S-VERSION OF THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR CONCURRENT MULTISCALE COUPLING

A variant of the s-version of the finite element method (hereafter coined the s-method) for concurrent multiscale coupling is developed. The proposed method is inspired by a combination of the s-version of the finite element method and the Arlequin method. It features a superposition of a local (fine) mesh, which partly overlaps a global (coarse) mesh, and appropriate homogeneous boundary conditions on both meshes that enforce solution continuity. Its performance in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency in solving a class of multiscale continuum mechanics problems is evaluated by virtue of comparison to the fine reference single mesh and the Arlequin method. Numerical studies are conducted for one-,two-, and three-dimensional problems. For select local and global meshes, the cause of accuracy gains in comparison to the Arlequin method, while having almost the same gain in CPU time, with respect to the discrete single fine mesh for both approaches, is explained.