An Efficient Numerical Method for Cavitation in Nonlinear Elasticity

This paper is concerned with the numerical computation of cavitation in nonlinear elasticity. The Crouzeix-Raviart nonconforming finite element method is shown to prevent the degeneration of the mesh provoked by the conventional finite element approximation of this problem. Upon the addition of a suitable stabilizing term to the elastic energy, the method is used to solve cavitation problems in both radially symmetric and non-radially symmetric settings. While the radially symmetric examples serve to illustrate the efficiency of the method, and for validation purposes, the experiments with non-centred and multiple cavities (carried out for the first time) yield novel observations of situations potentially leading to void coalescence.