I am looking for specific research topics in applications of FEM in geotechnical engineering. It is just to gather some topics so as to pick the interesting one for my PHD.Anybody willing to share something on this? You can suggest any topic and of course few details will be helpful.

Open Source Finite element packages

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I am writing to ask about the state of the art in finite element simulation using nonlinear elasticity and explicit dynamics.

Consider, for instance, a 3-d simulation of a hyperelastic beam that's fixed on one end, then  twisted about its long axis by 360 degrees and released. If we apply no friction or viscosity, the sum of kinetic plus potential energy should remain constant as the material springs back and oscillates.

Which FEM codes do the best at conserving KE+PE for a simulation of this type?  If you drop the time step, can you get energy conservation to many significant figures, as one can with, for instance, molecular dynamics simulation? 

I'm curious because I've recently written my own 3-d nonlinear explicit dynamics code that provides very high precision energy conservation, and I'm wondering if it's any better or worse than the nonlinear explicit dynamics codes already available.