NURBS-based isogeometric analysis for stable and accurate peeling computations

Numerical solution of adhesive peeling problems presents significant computational challenges. This is due to the large peeling stresses that occur in the very narrow zone ahead of the peeling front. The available literature offers solutions using either higher-order Lagrange-enriched finite-element (FE) or non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS)-enriched FE strategies. However, no work that fully utilizes the intrinsic advantageous features of isogeometric analysis and systemically explores the influence of NURBS discretizations exists on the adhesive peeling computations. Thus, the objective of the present work is to fill this research gap by carrying out a comprehensive and detailed isogeometric analysis of peeling problems and also to study the effect of different classes of NURBS discretizations on the stability and accuracy of peeling contact computations. In particular, higher-continuous and higher-order NURBS discretizations that are constructed with different combinations of various isogeometric refinement strategies are employed. In addition to this, higher-order Lagrange discretizations are adopted to perform comparative assessment of various isogeometric NURBS discretizations. The comparison is carried out in terms of accuracy, stability and computation cost for peeling analysis. The obtained results demonstrate the advantages of the NURBS discretizations: higher-continuous NURBS discretization delivers an accuracy similar to that with the higher-order Lagrange discretization at a much lower computational cost. Further, the higher-order NURBS discretizations significantly improve the stability and accuracy again at a lower computational cost as compared with higher-order Lagrange discretizations.