Substructured macro elements based on locally blended interpolation

In this paper we describe a new class of locally refined macro finite elements which are especially amenable to the use of substructuring techniques for the efficient solution of the resulting idealization. The tools and guidelines illustrated by the examples of modelling crack tips, point load singularities and singularities at re-entrant corners should enable an analyst to construct other such blended macro elements specifically tailored to his particular class of problems. The use of such substructured macro elements in finite element calculations permits substantial reduction in the manual effort of data preparation and the computational cost of numerical solution.