RECOVERY BY EQUILIBRIUM IN PATCHES (REP)

A new recovery technique is developed in this paper. It is shown that, for many elements, the behaviour of the method is very similar to that of SPR. Because it does not need to identify super-convergent points, it is applicable for any form of element in which these points are not de ned. The formulation is very simple and is based on equilibrating the recovered stresses, in the patch, in the same way that the standard FEM does. This procedure leads to a weak form of equilibrium equations of new stresses on the patch and consequently to answers satisfying the discrete equilibrium conditions. The formulation is consistent with non- linear formulations which iteratively equilibrate the problem. Therefore, this method can be used to project the Gauss points values to nodal points, with minimum disturbance of the global equilibrium.