Nonlinear Geotechnical Analysis Using a Polygonal Cell-Based Smoothed Finite Element Framework

Abstract

Nonlinear geotechnical analysis often involves complex geometries, staged construction, local failure, and mesh-dependent stress and plastic strain responses. This study develops a polygonal cell-based smoothed finite element method (CS-FEM) for nonlinear geotechnical analysis and implements it in ABAQUS through the user element subroutine. The proposed method combines Wachspress interpolation with cell-based strain smoothing, in which the smoothed strain--displacement matrix is evaluated by boundary integration over polygonal smoothing subcells. This formulation avoids direct calculation of shape-function derivatives inside polygonal elements and enables standard polygonal meshes and hybrid quadtree meshes with hanging nodes to be handled in a unified framework. Nonlinear geomaterial behavior is incorporated through incremental elasto-plastic constitutive updates, including the Mohr--Coulomb model and the Duncan--Chang model. Several benchmark and engineering examples, including a perforated plate, strip footing, core rockfill dam, tunnel excavation, and slope stability problems, are presented for verification. The results show that the proposed method accurately predicts displacement, stress, plastic strain, bearing capacity, and factor of safety, while providing improved mesh flexibility and computational efficiency for nonlinear geotechnical analysis.