A remeshing approach for the finite cell method applied to problems with large deformations

Abstract

The finite cell method (FCM) is based on an immersed boundary concept with high-order finite elements. When solving nonlinear problems using the FCM, it is often difficult to reach to the desired load step because of the large distortion of the mesh, particularly when badly broken cells are existing in the mesh. To overcome this problem, a global remeshing strategy is proposed to allow the nonlinear computation to proceed even for very large deformations where the distortion of the cells becomes significant. The core concept is to perform a computation up to a specific deformation state where the distortion of the cells becomes significant. Then, to continue the analysis, a new mesh is introduced. The performance of the proposed method is illustrated using two numerical examples of hyperelasticity.