Quadrilateral Finite Elements for Planar Linear Elasticity Problem with Large Lamé Constant

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the quadrilateral finite element approximation to the two-dimensional linear elasticity problem associated with a homogeneous isotropic elastic material. The optimal convergence of the finite element method is proved for both the $L^2$-norm and energy-norm, and in particular, the convergence is uniform with respect to the Lamé constant $\lambda$. Also the performance of the scheme does not deteriorate as the material becomes nearly incompressible. Numerical experiments are given which are consistent with our theory.