A variational discrete element method for the computation of Cosserat elasticity

The variational discrete element method developed in Marazzato et al. (Int J Numer Methods Eng, 121(23):5295–5319, 2020) for dynamic elasto-plastic computations is adapted to compute the deformation of elastic Cosserat materials. In addition to cellwise displacement degrees of freedom (dofs), cellwise rotational dofs are added. A reconstruction is devised to obtain P 1 non-conforming polynomials in each cell and thus constant strains and stresses in each cell. The method requires only the usual macroscopic parameters of a Cosserat material and no microscopic parameter. Numerical examples show the robustness of the method for both static and dynamic computations in two and three dimensions.