Resumen

JUAREZ-LUNA, G.  y  AYALA, G.. Elementos finitos con discontinuidades interiores mejorados para simular el daño en sólidos. Concr. cem. investig. desarro [online]. 2014, vol.6, n.1, pp.15-35. ISSN 2007-3011.

Finite elements with embedded discontinuities with a new definition of traction vector, dependent on the discontinuity length and the angle, are developed and implemented. An analysis of the principal features of finite elements with embedded discontinuities was performed; particularly two families of this kind of elements: 1) kinematically optimal symmetric and 2) statically and kinematically optimal non-symmetric. The analysed features are the variational formulation, damage model and how the discontinuity is introduced. It is shown that kinematics and equilibrium are satisfied, without the problem of fictitious tractions as stated in the literature. To show the validity of this symmetric formulation, representative numerical examples illustrating the performance of the proposed formulation are presented. The results show that the proposed formulation provides congruent results whit the energy required to create a discontinuity, without overestimate or underestimate this energy as occurs with the non-symmetric formulations.

Palabras llave : Embedded discontinuities; strain localization; variational formulation; strong discontinuity; damage model.