• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.3 s.70
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• pp.295-303
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• 2004

In this paper, an improved four-node Reissner-Mindlin plate-bending element with enhanced assumed strain field is presented for the analysis of isotropic and laminated composite plates. To avoid the shear locking and spurious zero energy modes, the transverse shear behavior is improved by the addition of a new enhanced shear strain based on the incompatible displacement mode approach and bubble function. The "standard" enhanced strain fields (Andelfinger and Ramm, 1993) are also employed to improve the in-plane behaviors of the plate elements. The four-node quadrilateral element derived using the first-order shear deformation theory is designated as "14EASP". Several applications are investigated to assess the features and the performances of the proposed element. The results are compared with other finite element solutions and analytical solutions. Numerical examples show that the element is stable, invariant, passes the patch test, and yields good results especially in highly distorted regimes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.5
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• pp.527-538
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• 2024

The standard numerical approximation of structural displacement field leads to the thickness-wise transverse shear stress distributions which are quite different from the exact ones. To overcome this inherent problem, an effective and reliable post-processing method is presented based on the strain recovery and the stress equilibrium, particularly for functionally graded cylindrical and conical elastic panels. The present method is developed in the framework of locking-free 2-D natural element method. Through the recovery of displacement component-wise derivatives, the element-wise discontinuous in-plane strain distributions are enhanced to be globally continuous and smoothened. And, using the continuous in-plane strains, the troublesome poor transverse shear stress distributions are enhanced through the thickness-wise integration of static equilibrium equations. The validity of present post-processing method is verified through the comparison with the reference solutions. In addition, the comparative experiments are also performed to investigate the difference between the present method and other available post-processing methods. The numerical results confirm that the present method provides the accurate transverse shear stress distributions which are consistent with the reference solutions and much better than other available methods.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.249-257
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• 2011

In this paper, an systematic approach is presented, in which the mixed variational theorem is employed to incorporate independent transverse shear stresses into a classical higher-order shear deformation theory(HSDT). The HSDT displacement field is taken to amplify the benefits of using a classical shear deformation theory such as simple and straightforward calculation and numerical efficiency. Those independent transverse shear stresses are taken from the fifth-order polynomial-based zig-zag theory where the fourth-order transverse shear strains can be obtained. The classical displacement field and independent transverse shear stresses are systematically blended via the mixed variational theorem. Resulting strain energy expressions are named as an enhanced higher-order shear deformation theory via mixed variational theorem(EHSDTM). The EHSDTM possess the same computational advantage as the classical HSDT while allowing for improved through-the-thickness stress and displacement variations via the post-processing procedure. Displacement and stress distributions obtained herein are compared to those of the classical HSDT, three-dimensional elasticity, and available data in literature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.191-213
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• 2011

This paper presents an improved 8-node shell element for the analysis of plates and shells. The finite element, based on a refined first-order shear deformation theory, is further improved by the combined use of assumed natural strain method. We analyze the influence of the shell element with the different patterns of sampling points for interpolating different components of strains. Using the assumed natural strain method with proper interpolation functions, the present shell element generates neither membrane nor shear locking behavior even when full integration is used in the formulation. Further, a refined first-order shear deformation theory, which results in parabolic through-thickness distribution of the transverse shear strains from the formulation based on the third-order shear deformation theory, is proposed. This formulation eliminates the need for shear correction factors in the first-order theory. Numerical examples demonstrate that the present element perform better in comparison with other shell elements.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1990.04a
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• pp.18-23
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• 1990

The paper is concerned with the elasto-plastic and geometrically nonlinear analysis of shell structures using an improved degenerated shell element. In the formulation of the improved degenerated shell element, an enhanced interpolation of transverse shear strains in the natural coordinate system is used to overcome the shear locking problems; the reduced integration technique in in-plane strains is applied to avoid membrane locking behavior; selective addition the nonconforming displacement modes improve the element performances. This element is free of serious locking problems and undesirable compatible or commutable spurious kinematic deformation modes and passes the patch tests. An incremental total Lagrangian formulation is presented which allows the calculation of arbitrarily large displacements and rotations. The resulting nonlinear equations are solved by the Newton-Raphson solution scheme. The versatility and accuracy of this improved degenerated shell element are demonstrated by solving several numerical examples.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 1991

The paper is concerned with the analysis of laminated composite shell structures using an improved degenerated shell element. In the formulation of the element stiffness, the combined use of three different techniques was made. They are; 1) an enhanced interpolation of transverse shear strains in the natural coordinate system to overcome the shear locking problem; 2) the reduced integration technique in in-plane strains to avoid the membrane locking behavior; and 3) selective addition of the nonconforming displacement modes to improve the element performances. This element is free of serious shear/membrane locking problems and undesirable compatible/commutable spurious kinematic deformation modes. An incremental total Lagrangian formulation is presented which allows the calculation of arbitrarily large displacements. The resulting non-linear equilibrium equations are solved by the Newton-Raphson method. The versatility and accuracy of this improved degenerated shell element are demonstrated by solving several numerical examples.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.97-107
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• 1990

The development of an improved degenerated shell element is presented in this paper. In the formulation of this element, an enhanced interpolation of transverse shear strains in the natural coordinate system is used to overcome the shear locking problem ; the reduced integration technique in in-plane strains is applied to avoid the membrane locking behavior ; and selective addition of the nonconforming displacement modes improve the element performances. This element is free of serious locking problems and undesirable compatible or commutable spurious kinematic deformation modes, and passes the patch tests. To illustrate the performance of this improved degenerated shell element, some benchmark problems are presented. Numerical results indicate that the new element shows fast convergence and reliable solutions.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.247-258
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• 2004

The composite shell element is developed for the solution of undamped forced vibration problem of composite curved panels. The finite element used in the current study is an 4-node enhanced assumed shell element with six degrees of freedom per node. The composite shell element is free of both shear and membrane locking phenomenon by using the enhanced assumed strain(EAS) method. A modification to the first-order shear deformation shell theory is proposed, which results in parabolic thorough-thickness distribution of the transverse shear strains and stresses. It eliminates the need for shear correction factors in the first order theory. Newmark's direct integration technique is used for carrying out the integration of the equation motion, to obtain the repones history. Parametric studies of curved composite panels are carried out for forced vibration analysis by geometrical shapes and by laminated composite; such as fiber orientation, stacking sequence.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.349-359
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• 2001

An enhanced four-node plate element, which has been developed for explicit dynamic analysis of plate, is described in this paper. Reissner-Mind1in(RM) assumptions are adopted to consider transverse shear deformation effects in the present plate element. RM plate element produces a shear locking phenomena in thin plate so that the substitute natural strains based on assumed strain method are explicitly derived. The present plate element is applied into the explicit transient algorithm and the mass matrix of plate is formulated by using special lumping method proposed by Hinton et al. The performance of the element is verified with numerical examples.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.113-123
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• 1990

The paper is concerned with the elasto-plastic and geometrically nonlinear analysis of shell structures using an improved degenerated shell element. In the formulation of the element stiffness, the combined use of three different techniques was made. They are; 1) an enhanced interpolation of transverse shear strains in the natural coordinate system to overcome the shear locking problem ; 2) the reduced integration technique in in-plane strains to avoid the membrane locking behavior ; and 3) selective addition of the nonconforming displacement modes to improve the element performances. This element is free of serious shear/membrane locking problems and undesirable compatible/commutable spurious kinematic deformation modes. In the formulation for plastic deformation, the concept of a layered element model is used and the material is assumed von Mises yield criterion. An incremental total Lagrangian formulation is presented which allows the calculation of arbitrarily large displacements and rotations. The resulting non-linear equilibrium equations are solved by the Netwon-Raphson method combined with load or displacement increment. The versatility and accuracy of this improved degenerated shell element are demonstrated by solving several numerical examples.