Multi-scale Numerical Simulation Of Structures Within The Arlequin Framework

Multi-scale simulation of materials and structures is one of the most popular frontiers of research in the 21st century, especially in the fields of material sciences, aeronautical and astronautical engineering, mechanical manufacturing industry and civil engineering. A large amount of research works has been done on multi-scale simulation of materials, however, much less can be found on multi-scale simulation of structures. In this paper, we will focus our attention on the multi-scale simulation of structures using the Arlequin method.The research on the various applications of the Arlequin method to multi-scale simulation of structures has been systematically conducted. The Arlequin method has been implemented into the large commercial finite element software ABAQUS by using the user defined elements (UELs), and the 1D,2D and 3D UELs have been systematically developed, which enables the realization of linear/nonlinear static and dynamic multi-scale simulations of structures within the Arlequin framework.The Arlequin method has been used for the first time to couple the finite element method and the meshfree method. Numerical multi-scale simulation of discontinuous problems has also been realized by using the Arlequin method along with the extended finite element method (XFEM) and the augmented finite element method (A-FEM).The augmented shell element and 3D cohesive zone element have been developed to simulate the delamination of laminated plates, which can enlarge the shell element size near the crack front up to 2-3 times of the cohesive zone length, thus breaking through the restriction that the shell element size near the crack front should be 1/3～1/5 of the cohesive zone length.The Arlequin method based on the ABAQUS platform also has been used to perform the multi-scale analysis of typical problems of structures in civil engineering, which lays a solid base for further applications of this multi-scale method to more complicated problems.The present study shows that the Arlequin method, which is based on the energy partition and the operator coupling, can couple two different mechanical states with great flexibility, promising a robust and efficient alternative tool for the multi-scale simulation of structures.