Isoparametric quadrilateral elements are widely used in the finite element method, but the accuracy of the isoparametric quadrilateral elements will drop obviously deteriorate due to mesh distortions. Spline functions have some properties of simplicity and conformality. Two 8-node quadrilateral elements have been developed using the trian- gular area coordinates and the B-net method, which can ex- actly model the quadratic field for both convex and concave quadrangles. Some appropriate examples are employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed elements. The nu- merical results show that the two spline elements can obtain solutions which are highly accurate and insensitive to mesh distortions.
Basic requirement for applying isoparametric element is that the element has to be convex and no violent distortion is allowed. In this paper, a cubic quadrilateral spline element with 12 nodes has been developed using the triangular area coordinates and the B-net method, which can exactly model the cubic field for quadrilateral element with both convex and concave shapes. Neither mapping nor coordinate transformation is required and the spline element can obtain high accuracy solutions and insensitive to mesh distortions.
In this paper,a 13-node pyramid spline element is derived by using the tetrahedron volume coordinates and the B-net method,which achieves the second order completeness in Cartesian coordinates.Some appropriate examples were employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed element.The numerical results show that the spline element has much better performance compared with the isoparametric serendipity element Q20 and its degenerate pyramid element P13 especially when mesh is distorted,and it is comparable to the Lagrange element Q27.It has been demonstrated that the spline finite element method is an efficient tool for developing high accuracy elements.
The quadrilateral discrete Kirchhoff thin plate bending element DKQ is based on the isoparametric element Q8, however, the accuracy of the isoparametric quadrilateral elements will drop significantly due to mesh distortions. In a previous work, we constructed an 8-node quadrilateral spline element L8 using the triangular area coordinates and the B- net method, which can be insensitive to mesh distortions and possess the second order completeness in the Cartesian co- ordinates. In this paper, a thin plate spline element is devel- oped based on the spline element L8 and the refined tech- nique. Numerical examples show that the present element indeed possesses higher accuracy than the DKQ element for distorted meshes.
