Figure 8 - uploaded by Stefan Kollmannsberger
Content may be subject to copyright.

Condition Number Variation. Condition numbers for the stiffness matrices on the unit disc assembled using 500 different shifts of the background grid (h = 0.13).
Source publication
We apply the recently developed least squares stabilized symmetric Nitsche method for enforcement of Dirichlet boundary conditions to the finite cell method. The least squares stabilized Nitsche method in combination with finite cell stabilization leads to a symmetric positive definite stiffness matrix and relies only on elementwise stabilization,...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... also note that diagonal scaling seems to work very well as a preconditioner for the method. In Figure 8 we get a view of how the condition numbers vary over 500 different cut situations for the disc on a fixed mesh size, and we see the least-squares stabilization seems to have a very positive effect for larger values of τ . Again, we see the effectiveness of diagonal scaling. ...
Similar publications
We analyze a divergence based first order system least squares method applied to a second order elliptic model problem with homogeneous boundary conditions. We prove optimal convergence in the L^2(Ω) norm for the scalar variable. Numerical results confirm our findings.
The two-dimensional deformation of a uniform, elastically isotropic layer of a finite thickness (FT) over a rough-rigid base caused by surface loads has been solved analytically. The stresses and the displacements for an isotropic layer are obtained in the integral form by applying the Airy’s stress function approach. Using the appropriate boundary...
The design of numerical boundary conditions is a challenging problem that has been tackled in different ways depending on the nature of the problem and the numerical scheme used to solve it. In this paper we present a new weighted extrapolation technique which entails an improvement with respect to the technique that was developed in [1]. This tech...
The aim of this work is to develop a numerical tool for computing the weak periodic solution for a class of parabolic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions. We formulate our problem as a minimization problem by introducing a least-squares cost function. With the help of the Lagrangian method, we calculate the gradient of the cost function. W...
Citations
... For this, so-called ghost penalty stabilization is used, introduced in [3] and generalized to higher-order in [20]. Still, there are other viable options for stabilizing a Nitsche-type method, for instance, discrete extension [5], least-squares stabilization [8,18], or cell merging [1,12]. ...
... . Whereas the bounds for δ above are devised for optimal order approximation properties, this bound is typically suboptimal for optimal order scaling of the stiffness matrix condition number, cf. [18] where similar bounds are computed to scale an inconsistent type of stabilization. An optimal bound for the condition number would likely involve a somewhat less aggressive scaling of δ, and the region of regularizationω δ using such a bound is reasonably the region where the method will run into numerical issues. ...
We consider elliptic problems in multipatch IGA where the patch parameterizations may be singular. To deal with this issue, we develop a robust weak formulation that allows trimmed (cut) elements, enforces interface and Dirichlet conditions weakly, and does not depend on specially constructed approximation spaces. Our technique for dealing with the singular maps is based on the regularization of the Riemannian metric tensor, and we detail how to implement this robustly. We investigate the method's behavior when applied to a square-to-cusp parameterization that allows us to vary the singular behavior's aggressiveness. We propose a scaling of the regularization parameter to obtain optimal order approximation. Our numerical experiments indicate that the method is robust also for quite aggressive singular parameterizations.
... One advantage of the FCM is that it can be utilized on differ- Fig. 1 Mesh generation for a heterogeneous material using FEM and FCM ent geometric models, such as implicit geometry description (level-set functions) [45,49,95], B-rep models (STL) [27,33,74], voxel models (CT scans) [31,40,50,96], or constructive solid geometry (CSG) [78,91,92], to name a few. Recently, the FCM was further developed to solve additional challenges arising in cut finite cells, such as the numerical integration of the stiffness matrix and load vector [3,32,44], the imposition of boundary conditions [16,54,62], and the solution of linear systems of equations [19][20][21]50]. For smooth problems, the FCM exhibits high convergence rates and hence, can compete with the p-FEM [28,71]. ...
In recent times, immersed methods such as the finite cell method have been increasingly employed in structural mechanics to address complex-shaped problems. However, when dealing with heterogeneous microstructures, the FCM faces several challenges. Weak discontinuities occur at the interfaces between the different materials, resulting in kinks in the displacements and jumps in the strain and stress fields. Furthermore, the morphology of such composites is often described by 3D images, such as ones derived from X-ray computed tomography. These images lead to a non-smooth geometry description and thus, singularities in the stresses arise. In order to overcome these problems, several strategies are presented in this work. To capture the weak discontinuities at the material interfaces, the FCM is combined with local enrichment. Moreover, the L-projection is extended and applied to heterogeneous microstructures, transforming the 3D images into smooth level-set functions. All of the proposed approaches are applied to numerical examples. Finally, an application of cemented granular material is investigated using three versions of the FCM and is verified against the finite element method. The results show that the proposed methods are suitable for simulating heterogeneous materials starting from CT scans.
... This approach can be effectively integrated with BFCM and the compressed sub-cell method. For simplicity, the study assumes that the boundaries of constraints are coincident with the extended domain boundaries so that the Lagrange multipliers [61] serve to introduce constraint equations and the weak form of the constraint equations in Nitsche method [20,[62][63][64][65] are not necessary. ...
Practical multibody systems usually consist of flexible bodies of complex shapes, but existing dynamic modeling methods work efficiently only for the systems with bodies of simple and regular shapes. This study proposes a novel computational method for simulating dynamics of flexible multibody systems with flexible bodies of complex shapes via an integration of the finite cell method (FCM) and the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. The classic mesh of FCM is not aligned to the body boundaries, leading to a large number of integration points in cut cells. This study utilizes the Boolean FCM with compressed sub-cell method to reduce the number of integration points and improve computation efficiency. Seven static and dynamic numerical examples are used to validate the proposed method.
... For multi-patch situations, interface coupling needs to be considered. Nitsche's method [27] is a domain decomposition method (DDM) that is widely used to solve boundary value problems in multiple domains [28][29][30]. Unlike other DDMs (e.g., Lagrange multiplier method [31][32][33] and penalty method [34]), Nitsche's method imposes the boundary conditions in a weak sense and involves an additional penalty-like term to maintain the coercivity of the bilinear form [27]. Embar et al. [35] imposed Dirichlet boundary conditions with help of Nitsche's method and spline-based finite element, where a local eigenvalue problem is used to compute stability parameters arising in the Nitsche-type weak form. Nguyen et al. [36] applied Nitsche's method in IGA to couple the non-conforming NURBS patches in two and three dimensions. ...
... The numerical challenges faced in these methods are typically caused by the fact that elements are intersected by the boundaries (see Fig. 1c), leading to important simulation aspects, such as the 1. Integration of discontinuous element matrices (FCM: [5,[14][15][16][17], XFEM: [18][19][20][21], CutFEM: [22]), 2. Stabilization schemes for ill-conditioned problems (FCM: [23][24][25], XFEM: [13,26,27], CutFEM: [28,29]), 3. Implementation of weak boundary conditions on immersed boundaries (FCM: [30], XFEM: [13], CutFEM: [31]), 4. Accurate capturing of weakly or strongly discontinuous displacement fields (FCM: [32], XFEM: [33,34], Cut-FEM: [6]), 5. Mass lumping and time integration schemes for transient problems (SCM: [10,35]), to just name a few. The list given above demonstrates the multitude of important topics related to immersed boundary methods, which are entire research areas on their own. ...
Code verification plays a crucial role for all finite element applications, especially for non-standard ones, such as immersed boundary approaches, which are typically based on novel algorithms and often error-prone in-house implementations. Instead of relying on rarely available analytical solutions or overkill FEM simulations, in this article, the capabilities of the method of manufactured solutions (MoMS) are explored, enabling an easy and straightforward derivation of closed-form reference solutions. The focus is kept on immersed problems, in particular, on the finite cell method (FCM), and manufactured solutions are derived for 2D and 3D problems involving voids and single/multiple inclusions. We propose several approaches for the construction of the manufactured solutions, where zero traction conditions for void regions and continuous normal stresses along material interfaces are directly fulfilled. Thus, no weak boundary conditions are required for reproducing the manufactured solution via FCM. This not only enables code verification for FCM implementations that lack the option of applying weak boundary conditions, but also keeps the simulation complexity low, when testing other relevant features, e.g., different integration schemes or the implementation of enrichment functions. The flexibility and wide application range of the MoMS in the context of immersed boundary simulations is demonstrated using static, quasi-static, and transient problems in the context of linear elasticity. Finally, the analytical derivations of the manufactured solutions used in this paper are provided as supplementary material.
... Instead, similarly to immersed methods such as the Finite Cell Method (FCM) [33,34], or the Isogeometric B-Rep Analysis (IBRA) [35] essential boundary conditions are usually processed in a weak form. Common approaches in other FEM and immersed FEM methods are the penalty approach ( [36] for FEM, e.g., [37] for FCM, e.g., [35,38] for IBRA, e.g., [39] for MPM), the Nitsche method (e.g., [40] for FCM, e.g., [41] for IGA), Mortar-based methods (e.g., [42] for FEM, e.g., [43] for FCM, [44] for IGA), or the Lagrange multiplier approach ( [45] for FEM, e.g., [38,41] for IGA/IBRA). All methods have their advantages in different numerical scenarios. ...
... In immersed methods, the small cut instabilities are wellknown problems and have been addressed by several authors just mentioning [40]. In case a boundary cuts an element nearby, the shape function values of the corresponding nodes may be very small, consequently leading to ill-conditioned stiffness matrices. ...
The Material Point Method (MPM) is an established and powerful numerical method particularly useful for simulating large-scale, rapid soil deformations. Therefore, it is often used for the numerical investigation of mass movement hazards such as landslides, debris flows, or avalanches. It combines the benefits of both mesh-free and mesh-based continuum-based discretization techniques by discretizing the physical domain with Lagrangian moving particles carrying the history-dependent variables while the governing equations are solved at the Eulerian background grid, which brings many similarities with commonly used finite element methods. However, due to this hybrid nature, the material boundaries do not usually coincide with the nodes of the computational grid, which complicates the imposition of boundary conditions. Furthermore, the position of the boundary may change at each time step and, moreover, may be defined at arbitrary locations within the computational grid that do not necessarily coincide with the body contour, leading to different interactions between the material and the boundary. To cope with these challenges, this paper presents a novel element-wise formulation to weakly impose non-conforming Dirichlet conditions using Lagrange multipliers. The proposed formulation introduces a constant Lagrange multiplier approximation within the constrained elements in combination with a methodology to eliminate superfluous constraints. Therefore, in combination with simple element-wise interpolation functions classically utilized in MPM (and FEM) to approximate the unknown field, a suitable Lagrange multiplier discretization is obtained. In this way, we obtain a robust, efficient, and user-friendly boundary imposition method for immersed methods specified herein for implicit MPM. Furthermore, the extension to frictionless slip conditions is derived. The proposed methodologies are assessed by comparing the numerical results with both analytical and experimental data to demonstrate their accuracy and wide range of applications.
... The dense distribution of integration points serves to capture the boundary, as in level sets, and to increase the accuracy of integration over cells independent of the physical domain. The stabilisation analysis of FCM with Neumann and weakly forced Dirichlet conditions are carried out by [66] and [67], respectively. ...
Computational modelling of heterogeneous materials with complex microstructures is challenging due to their multiscale nature. While direct numerical simulations lead to accurate results, it is not tractable for large-scale models. Therefore, in this thesis, two novel concurrent multiscale frameworks have been developed for tractable simulation of 2D/3D highly heterogeneous materials, including composites and trabecular bone materials. The difficulty of discretising such materials with complex microstructure is circumvented by using the cut finite element method (CutFEM). Then, two efficient zooming techniques are proposed for coupling micro and macroscale models. In our multiscale frameworks, the CutFEM technique is utilised to discretise the corresponding micro/macro interface besides the microstructure.
In the first framework, the smooth transition concurrent multiscale method, the two models are blended in a transition region and discretised over a single fixed computational mesh. While in the second framework, the two models have different meshes and are coupled over a sharp interface using Nitsche's method. In both frameworks, the CutFEM technology has been used for discretisation purposes that permits representing the microstructure and micro/macro interfaces in a mesh-independent fashion. This feature of CutFEM allows to (re)locate the zooming region(s) (the region(s) we require microscopic analysis) over a fixed background mesh arbitrarily, thus improving the robustness of multiscale modelling and analysis. In chapter 3, the efficiency and robustness of the smoothed concurrent multiscale method is demonstrated for 2D and 3D linear elasticity problems. Then, in chapter 5, the performance of the second concurrent multiscale framework with a sharp interface is tested for 2D linear elasticity and plasticity materials.
In chapter 4, the smoothed concurrent multiscale method developed in chapter 3 is extended for brittle fracture problems, which are a prevalent example of multiscale phenomena. According to the literature, fracture initiation starts in microscopic length scales by an accumulation of micro cracks in a process zone that eventually leads to the creation of macro cracks. In this thesis, the phase field model has been adopted for the fracture problem, which considers the fracture in a diffusive way. Since phase field models suffer from demanding extremely refined meshes to represent cracks, an efficient numerical framework is essential to balance accuracy and computational costs. In chapter 4, we show that our smoothed concurrent multiscale framework is a suitable choice for such problems.
... • A least squares stabilization term can be applied when the employed function space is (at least) C 1 -continuous. In [185] and [186] it is demonstrated that a stable and coercive formulation can also be achieved by applying a least squares finite element term in the vicinity of the Dirichlet boundary. Because in H 2 (Ω) the normal gradient on the boundary can be controlled by volumetric terms, coercivity is even achieved in the full space instead of only in the discrete space. ...
... A drawback of this approach is that it only applies to C 1 -continuous bases. The least squares stabilization does not repair the conditioning, such that in [185] this approach is combined with the removal of basis functions with very small supports in the physical domain and in [186] it is combined with a fictitious domain stiffness. ...
This review paper discusses the developments in immersed or unfitted finite element methods over the past decade. The main focus is the analysis and the treatment of the adverse effects of small cut elements. We distinguish between adverse effects regarding the stability and adverse effects regarding the conditioning of the system, and we present an overview of the developed remedies. In particular, we provide a detailed explanation of Schwarz preconditioning, element aggregation, and the ghost penalty formulation. Furthermore, we outline the methodologies developed for quadrature and weak enforcement of Dirichlet conditions, and we discuss open questions and future research directions.
... The classification of each method depends on the specific techniques that are used for domain integration and imposition of boundary conditions. Lagrange multipliers, 5-10 the penalty method 11,12 , Nitsche's method [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] , the LS-Nitsche's method, 21,22 etc. are some of the techniques that are commonly used for the imposition of boundary conditions. Both the penalty method and Nitsche's method impose essential boundary conditions in a weak sense, i.e., the variational formulation is modified to account for essential boundary conditions rather than introducing explicit constraints on the state variables. ...
Immersed finite element methods have been developed as a means to circumvent the costly mesh generation required in conventional finite element analysis. However, the numerical ill-conditioning of the resultant linear system of equations in such methods poses a challenge for iterative solvers. In this work, we focus on the finite cell method (FCM) with adaptive quadrature, adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and Nitsche's method for the weak imposition of boundary conditions. An adaptive geometric multigrid solver is employed for the discretized problem. We study the influence of the mesh-dependent stabilization parameter in Nitsche's method on the performance of the geometric multigrid solver and its implications for the multilevel setup in general. A global and a local estimate based on generalized eigenvalue problems are used to choose the stabilization parameter. We find that the convergence rate of the solver is significantly affected by the stabilization parameter, the choice of the estimate and how the stabilization parameter is handled in multilevel configurations. The local estimate, computed on each grid, is found to be a robust method and leads to rapid convergence of the geometric multigrid solver.
... Different technologies have been proposed to limit the deflections of those control points, e.g. modifying basis functions [103,110,253], stabilization terms [132] or conditioning of solvers [114]. A rectangular cantilever plate with a split in the middle is modeled by one trimmed patch generating two almost independent cantilevers. ...
This thesis presents innovative methodological developments for a
seamless computer-aided design-integrated simulation and structural
assessment of masonry in a numerical multiphysics environment.
A numerically classified experimental program is processed to obtain a
quantitative classification of masonry, for which a novel computational
constitutive law is developed and presented. Furthermore, finite
element-based physics are enhanced to cope with the properties of
computer-aided design descriptions towards the demands of masonry
structures. With the presented avenues increased possibilities arise
in the structural assessment of buildings, including post-damage
load-carrying behaviors and limit stress states for various impact
scenarios. This is demonstrated in a selection of relevant benchmark
problems. With the presented choice of small-scale tests, an eventual
solution scheme towards the predictability by simulation of historic
and new buildings shall be introduced.
The development of the computer-aided design-integrated methods is
presented in a manner that reaches beyond the needs of masonry and
shall enlighten the general applicability of the proposed approaches.
The established technologies are introduced along with realized code
developments, specifically addressing a unified implementation for
a generic integration within various finite element software environments.