Adaptive Zooming Method for the Simulation of Quasi-Brittle Materials

A method to simulate concrete structures (quasi- brittle material) with localized nonlinearities is presented. Based on Guyan’s condensation, it consists in replacing the elastic zones of the structure by their equivalent rigidities (super-elements). The nonlinear computation is then performed only on the damaged zones of interest, i.e. damaged. As new damaged zones may appear, ourthe proposed method monitors the evolution of the system and re-integrates previously condensed areas if necessary. This method, applied on different tests cases, allows a substantial computation economy which allows the use of very fine description in nonlinear areas.