Local unloading element process in finite element continuum

The subcritical elastoplastic deformation and the fracturing of an element of a finite element continuum in the Ansys Workbench complex are considered. When solving the elastoplastic problem of the subcritical deformation, a finite element with the failure criterion reached is selected. In a pre-fracture state of the element, the nodal forces provided by the interaction with an adjacent element are determined using the Ansys Workbench internal procedure. The following step is the consideration of the varying stress-strain state of the body during the element destruction. The elastoplastic problem is solved in the conditions of simple unloading of the body surface adjacent to the destructible element while maintaining the external load corresponding to the destruction initiation. When implementing the local unloading, a possibility of the new plastic region formation and the partial unloading are studied. As a result, the stress-strain state of the body at the beginning of local unloading is not the same as that at the end of the process. The proposed approach differs from the “element killing” procedure when the element stiffness after the failure criterion reached is assumed to be close to zero. The paper provides solutions to the problems of deformation of elastic and elastoplastic plates with a side cut taking into account their element destruction.