A combined mesh and model adaptive strategy for the scaling issues in the numerical modelling of the ductile damage in thin panels

In this paper, a combined model and mesh adaptive computational approach is presented for the numerical modelling of ductile damage in thin panels. The aim of such a strategy is to be able to compute with the finite element techniques, the damage tolerance of large structures, such as a fuselage, in a fully coupled way, taking into account the multiscale character of the problem. In a sole computation, both global structural features at the macroscale levelsuch as fasteners, stiffeners and joint configuration-and a realistic material damage behaviour at the microscale level are treated in a coherent way. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.