Mixed finite element and TPSA finite volume methods for linearized elasticity and Cosserat materials

Abstract: Cosserat theory of elasticity is a generalization of classical elasticity that allows for asymmetry in the stress tensor by taking into account micropolar rotations in the medium. The equations involve a rotation field and associated "couple stress" as variables, in addition to the conventional displacement and Cauchy stress fields. In recent work, we derived a mixed finite element method (MFEM) for the linear Cosserat equations that converges optimally in these four variables. The drawback of this method is that it retains the stresses as unknowns, and therefore leads to relatively large saddle point system that are computationally demanding to solve. As an alternative, we developed a finite volume method in which the stress variables are approximated using a minimal, two-point stencil (TPSA). The system consists of the displacement and rotation variables, with an additional "solid pressure" unknown. Both the MFEM and TPSA methods are robust in the incompressible limit and in the Cauchy limit, for which the Cosserat equations degenerate to classical linearized elasticity. We report on the construction of the methods, their a priori properties, and compare their numerical performance against an MPSA finite volume method.