High order Manifold Method with Independent Covers

Abstract:

An independent cover based manifold method (ICMM) is presented. In the ICMM, various high order cover functions can be naturally employed at the independent covers, and the springs with real physical significance are defined between the adjacent independent covers, which are different from the virtual springs in DDA(Discontinuous Deformation Analysis) and DEM(Discrete Element Method). The requirement for the complex algorithm for cover generation in conventional NMM(Numerical Manifold Method), and the rank deficiency due to the linear dependence of the global degrees of freedom in high order NMM are well treated in the present ICMM. The continuous deformation analysis, the discontinuous deformation analysis, and the switch from continuous analysis to discontinuous analysis can be unified in a same framework in the ICMM. Several test examples indicate the correctness and the validity of the proposed method.