A variational framework for the strain-smoothed element method

This paper is devoted to a rigorous mathematical foundation for the convergence properties of strain-smoothed element (SSE) method. The SSE method has demonstrated improved behaviors compared other strain smoothing methods through various numerical examples; however, there been no theoretical evidence behavior. A unique feature construction smoothed fields within elements by fully unifying strains adjacent elements. Owing this feature, analysis required, which different from existing methods. In paper, we first propose novel mixed variational principle wherein can be interpreted as Galerkin approximation that. proposed generalization well-known Hu--Washizu principle; thus, expressed in terms principle. With unified view and principle, analyze behavior explain reason performance We also present experiments that support our results.