Autonomous decentralized finite element method and its applications

In this paper, a new solution procedure using the nite element technique in order to solve problems of structure analysis is proposed. This procedure is called the autonomous decentralized nite element method because it is based on the characteristic autonomy and decentralization in life or biological systems (life-like approach). The fundamental approach is developed according to an idea of cellular automata manipulation by the new neighbourhood model. The nite element method with an algorithm of the relaxation method is adopted as the solution procedure in this approach. The proposed procedure demonstrates that it is a powerful means of numerical analysis for many kinds of structural problems that are structural morphogenesis, structural optimization and structural inverse problems. Our procedure is applied to numerical analysis of three simple plane models: (1) The structural shape analysis problem for the prescribed displacement mode of a truss structure, (2) An adaptive structure remodelling problem on an elastic continuum, (3) An identi cation problem of thermal conductivity on a continuum. The e ectiveness and validity of our idea are shown from their numerical results