In the simulation of deformations of plates it is well known that we have to use a special treatment of the thickness dependence. Therewith we achieve a reduction of dimension from 3D to 2D. For linear elasticity and small deformations several techniques are well established to handle the reduction of dimension and achieve acceptable numerical results. In the case of large deformations of plates with non-linear material behaviour there exist different problems. For example the analytical integration over the thickness of the plate is not possible due to the non-linearities arising from the material law and the large deformations themselves. There are several possibilities to introduce a hypothesis for the treatment of the plate thickness from the strong Kirchhoff assumption on one hand up to some hierarchical approaches on the other hand.

The main focus of this work lies in the simulation of the deformation of mechanical components which consist of nonlinear elastic, incompressible material and that are subject to large deformations. Starting from a nonlinear formulation one can derive a discrete problem by using linearisation techniques and an adaptive mixed finite element method. This turns out to be a saddle point problem that can be solved via a Bramble-Pasciak conjugate gradient method. With some modifications the simulation can be improved.

This thesis investigates the numerical simulation of three-dimensional, mechanical deformation problems in the context of large deformations. The main focus lies on the prediction of non-linearly elastic, incompressible material. Based on the equilibrium of forces, we present the weak formulation of the large deformation problem. The discrete version can be derived by using linearisation techniques and an adaptive mixed finite element method. This problem turns out to be a saddle point problem that can, among other methods, be solved via the Bramble-Pasciak conjugate gradient method or the minimal residual algorithm. With some modifications the resulting simulation can be improved but we also address remaining limitations. Some numerical examples show the capability of the final FEM software. In addition, we briefly discuss the special case of linear elasticity with small deformations. Here we directly derive a linear weak formulation with a saddle point structure and apply the adaptive mixed finite element method. It is shown that the presented findings can also be used to treat the nearly incompressible case.

In the simulation of deformations of plates it is well known that we have to use a special treatment of the thickness dependence. Therewith we achieve a reduction of dimension from 3D to 2D. For linear elasticity and small deformations several techniques are well established to handle the reduction of dimension and achieve acceptable numerical results. In the case of large deformations of plates with non-linear material behaviour there exist different problems. For example the analytical integration over the thickness of the plate is not possible due to the non-linearities arising from the material law and the large deformations themselves. There are several possibilities to introduce a hypothesis for the treatment of the plate thickness from the strong Kirchhoff assumption on one hand up to some hierarchical approaches on the other hand.:1. Introduction 2. The 3D-deformation energy 3. Basic differential geometry of shells 4. Kirchhoff assumption and the deformed plate 5. Plate energy and boundary conditions 6. Numerical example

This thesis investigates the numerical simulation of three-dimensional, mechanical deformation problems in the context of large deformations. The main focus lies on the prediction of non-linearly elastic, incompressible material. Based on the equilibrium of forces, we present the weak formulation of the large deformation problem. The discrete version can be derived by using linearisation techniques and an adaptive mixed finite element method. This problem turns out to be a saddle point problem that can, among other methods, be solved via the Bramble-Pasciak conjugate gradient method or the minimal residual algorithm. With some modifications the resulting simulation can be improved but we also address remaining limitations. Some numerical examples show the capability of the final FEM software. In addition, we briefly discuss the special case of linear elasticity with small deformations. Here we directly derive a linear weak formulation with a saddle point structure and apply the adaptive mixed finite element method. It is shown that the presented findings can also be used to treat the nearly incompressible case.

The main focus of this work lies in the simulation of the deformation of mechanical components which consist of nonlinear elastic, incompressible material and that are subject to large deformations. Starting from a nonlinear formulation one can derive a discrete problem by using linearisation techniques and an adaptive mixed finite element method. This turns out to be a saddle point problem that can be solved via a Bramble-Pasciak conjugate gradient method. With some modifications the simulation can be improved.:1. Introduction 2. Basics 3. Mixed variational formulation 4. Solution method 5. Error estimation 6. LBB conditions 7. Improvement suggestions