Recovery of consistent stresses for compatible finite elements Original Research Article

In displacement based finite element models, stresses deduced directly from the constitutive relationship can show local erratic behaviour. This occurs in problems involving initial stresses or strains, or varying rigidities over the element domain, when local stresses do not meet a specific consistency requirement. In this context, an integrated procedure for recovering consistent stresses, that is stresses ridded of spurious outcomes, is proposed. The procedure is developed within a general weighted residual approach, suitably specialized for the purpose. The relationship between the proposed procedure and those based on the Hu–Washizu formulation is also elucidated. For illustration purpose, some numerical tests are included.