Enriching the Finite Element Method with meshfree techniques in structural mechanics

The automatic generation of meshes for the Finite Element method can be an expensive computational burden, especially in structural problems with localized stress peaks. The use of meshless methods can address such an issue, as these techniques do not require the existence of an underlying connection among the nodes selected in a general domain. However, a thoroughly meshfree technique can be computationally quite expensive. Usually, the most expensive tasks rely on identifying the nodal contacts and computing the Galerkin integrals. In this thesis we advance a novel hybrid technique that blends Finite Elements with the Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin method with the aim at exploiting the most attractive properties of each procedure. The idea relies on the use of the Finite Element Method to compute a background solution that is locally improved by enriching the approximating space with the basis functions associated to a few meshless nodes, thus taking advantage of the flexibility ensured by the use of particles disconnected from an underlying grid. Adding the meshless particles only where needed avoids the cost of mesh refining, or even of re-meshing, without the prohibitive burden of a thoroughly meshfree approach. In particular, two enriching methods are introduced and discussed, with applications in structural mechanics.