Hello sfepy developers and users!
I am modelling a simple linear elastic sheet under isotropic stress with an elliptical hole in the center (and I have it working under sfepy, great little platform!).
It is obvious the model should initially yield more easily in the direction of the short axis of the ellipse. What is not so obvious to me is what should happen in the limit as stress goes to infinity. Part of me wants to believe that the hole should eventually become a circular, but the results of the simulation show that the ellipse eventually switches its aspect ratio with what was the the short axis becoming the long axis and vice-versa.
My question is whether: A: The finite element result is the product of a small-displacement/non-moving mesh artifact (and if so, if there is a way to get the correct behavior using sfepy...) OR B: My intuition about the physical behavior of this ideal system is incorrect and the ellipse really wouldn't round out into a circle under increasingly large stress (aka, the FE model is still physical/correct with large displacements).
This might be obvious to people who have done more finite element modeling than I have, but thanks anyway! I'm attaching a picture to make it easier to see at a glance (quarter-ellipse with x and y symmetry boundary conditions and equal tractions applied at the top and right boundaries).
Thanks! -David Mashburn
