An Inner-Element Edge-Based Smoothed Finite Element Method

Abstract A modified inner-element edge-based smoothed finite element method (IES-FEM) is developed and integrated with ABAQUS using a user-defined element (UEL) in this study. Initially, the smoothing domain discretization of IES-FEM is described and compared with ES-FEM. A practical modification of IES-FEM is then introduced that used the technique employed by ES-FEM for the nodal strain calculation. The differences in the strain computation among ES-FEM, IES-FEM, and FEM are then discussed. The modified IES-FEM exhibited superior performance in displacement and a slight advantage in stress compared to FEM using the same mesh according to the results obtained from both the regular and irregular elements. The robustness of the IES-FEM to severely deformed meshes was also verified.