| Edge based interface element for three-dimensional geomechanical problems |
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| Rubens Sydenstricker - COPPE/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Marcos Martins - COPPE/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Alvaro Coutinho - COPPE/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro José Alves - COPPE/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro |
A edge-based three-dimensional interface element for simulation of joints, faults and other discontinuities present in several geomechanical applications is proposed. Edge-based data structures are used to improve computational efficiency of Inexact Newton methods for solving finite element nonlinear problems on unstructured meshes. Numerical experiments in the solution of three-dimensional problems in cache based and vector processors have shown that memory and computer time are reduced. |