Static and dynamic analysis of multi-component structures based on multiple point constraint using smoothed finite element methods

Abstract

The smoothed finite element methods (SFEM) have demonstrated their ability to generate more flexible models, offering increased reliability compared to traditional FEM in certain straightforward and idealized situations. To explore the potential of SFEM in complex engineering problems, this paper, for the first time, combining with multiple point constraints to develop a simple and general procedure to study various analysis types of multi-component structures, via (1) the global matrix is constructed by eliminating independent degrees of freedom; (2) the local matrix generated by the SFEM is divided into four kinds of sub-domains, and any entry of the local matrix is assembled to the global matrix depending on the type of sub-domain. By implementing this approach without augmenting the number of equations, the current method excels not only in the analysis of multi-component structures but also outperforms ABAQUS and NASTRAN in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. This superiority has been convincingly demonstrated through several numerical examples, providing strong validation for the proposed method.