A Numerical Investigation of High-Order Finite Elements for Problems of Elastoplasticity

A high order finite element approach is applied to elastoplastic problems in two as well as in three dimensions. The element formulations are based on quadrilaterals and hexahedrals, taking advantage of the blending function method in order to accurately represent the geometry. A comparison of h- and p-extensions is drawn and it is shown that thin-walled structures commonly being analysed by dimensionally reduced elements may be consistently discretized by high order hexahedral elements leading to reliable and efficient computations even in case of physically nonlinear problems.