NUMERICAL VALIDATION OF A HYBRID FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD USING EIGENSTRAIN

A hybrid finite element method that uses eigenstrain to model material discontinuities is evaluated numerically by comparing results to a conventional finite element analysis for several representative problems. The hybrid method is briefly reviewed and generalized to include polynomial eigenstrain. The computational effort required for the hybrid and conventional methods is reviewed. Numerical results are presented and discussed. The effect of initial mesh refinement and order of the eigenstrain polynomial for the hybrid method are examined.