Rigid body rotation and block internal discretization in DDA analysis

In the original formulation of DDA by Shi, a linear displacement function term is used. This has the limitations of uncontrolled block and stress distortion due to rigid body rotation. In the present paper, the authors propose a new iterative method which can avoid the distortion due to the rotation even when the rotation or number of time-step is large. Furthermore, the authors propose a simple internal discretization scheme which is applicable for both concave and convex polygon which is particularly important for a large block. The stress and strain distribution with a large block can be obtained with ease under this scheme. The numerical examples as shown have demonstrated the advantages of the present proposal in DDA analysis. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.