Stéphane Commend, Thomas Zimmermann, LSC-DGC-EPFL
Version updated 26.08.99
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The aim of this report is to show how to handle nonlinear finite element analysis with object-oriented programming techniques. J2-plasticity (Von Misès) including isotropic and kinematic hardening is taken here as illustration. Section 0 is dedicated to some conventions and notations, while section 1 gives a short introduction on the subject of finite element analysis applied to continuum mechanics, Von Misès plasticity, and also enumerates the principal features of the object-oriented approach. Section 2 reveals the class hierarchy which can be considered as the kernel of any object-oriented program. In sections 3 and 4, the body of the program is described through the key components of finite element analysis: first the element level is considered (section 3), then assembly and finally the global problem (section 4). Section 5 presents some examples to illustrate the code, and conclusions are drawn in section 6.
Downloading section
The following links allow you to download a small nonlinear finite element program