An adaptive approach to limit analysis

The main objective of this paper is to propose an adaptive mesh re®nement procedure for ®nite element models in limit analysis. We use an `a posterioriʹ indicator based on the local directional interpolation error and a recovering scheme to compute second derivatives of the ®nite element solution. The proposed mesh adaptation process gives improved results in localizing regions of rapid or abrupt variations of the variables, whose location is not known a priori. Limit analysis of bodies in plane strain and plane stress is considered in the applications