• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.223-239
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• 2023

Geometric nonlinear performance simulation and analysis of complex modern buildings and industrial products require high-performance shell elements. Balancing multiple aspects of performance in the one geometric nonlinear analysis element remains challenging. We present a new shell element, flat shell DKMGQ-CR (Co-rotational Discrete Kirchhoff-Mindlin Generalized Conforming Quadrilateral), for linear and geometric nonlinear analysis of both thick and thin shells. The DKMGQ-CR shell element was developed by combining the advantages of high-performance membrane and plate elements in a unified coordinate system and introducing the co-rotational formulation to adapt to large deformation analysis. The effectiveness of linear and geometric nonlinear analysis by DKMGQ-CR is verified through the tests of several classical numerical benchmarks. The computational results show that the proposed new element adapts to mesh distortion and effectively alleviates shear and membrane locking problems in linear and geometric nonlinear analysis. Furthermore, the DKMGQ-CR demonstrates high performance in analyzing thick and thin shells. The proposed element DKMGQ-CR is expected to provide an accurate, efficient, and convenient tool for the geometric nonlinear analysis of shells.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.373-394
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• 2016

The postbuckling behavior of laminated composite plates and shells, subjected to various shear loadings, is presented, using a modified 8-ANS method. The finite element, based on a modified 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 various location and number of enhanced membrane and shear interpolation. 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. The effects of various types of lay-ups, materials and number of layers on initial buckling and postbuckling response of the laminated composite plates and shells for various shear loading have been discussed. In addition, the effect of direction of shear load on the postbuckling behavior is studied. Numerical results and comparisons of the present results with those found in the literature for typical benchmark problems involving symmetric cross-ply laminated composites are found to be excellent and show the validity of the developed finite element model. The study is relevant to the simulation of barrels, pipes, wing surfaces, aircrafts, rockets and missile structures subjected to intense complex loading.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.234-241
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• 1999

In this study, an improved 8-node flat shell element is presented for the analysis of shell structure, by combining 8-node membrane element with drilling degree-of-freedom and 8-node plate bending element based on the recently presented technique. Firstly, 8-node membrane element designated as CLM8 is presented in this paper. The element has drilling degree-of.freedom in addition to transitional degree-of-freedom. Therefore the element possesses 3 degrees-of-freedom per each node which as well as the improvement of the element behavior, permits an easy connection to other element with rotational degree-of -freedom. Secondly. 8-node flat shell element was composed by adding 8-node Mindlin plate bending element to the membrane element. The behavior of the introduced plate bending element is further improved by combined use of nonconforming displacement modes, selectively reduced integration scheme and assumed shear strain fields. The element passes in the patch test, doesn't show spurious mechanism and doesn't produce shear locking phenomena. Finally, Numerical examples are presented to show the performance of flat shell element developed in the present study.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.155-163
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• 1996

In the analysis of thin elastic structures such as beam-, arch-, plate- and shell-like bodies using standard finite element schemes, there may occur deterioration of approximation quality owing to shear and membrane lockings. Moreover, a recognition of this phenomenon in the computed numerical results is not easy without comparing with other available reference numerical data. This paper analyses briefly this phenomenon and introduces one inexpensive but reliable a posteriori locking detection method. Numerical examples are given supporting the theoretical results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.83-114
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• 2003

A new simple 3-node triangular flat-shell element with standard nodal DOF (6 DOF per node) is proposed for the linear and geometrically nonlinear analysis of very thin to thick plate and shell structures. The formulation of element GT9 (Long and Xu 1994), a generalized conforming membrane element with rigid rotational freedoms, is employed as the membrane component of the new shell element. Both one-point reduced integration scheme and a corresponding stabilization matrix are adopted for avoiding membrane locking and hourglass phenomenon. The bending component of the new element comes from a new generalized conforming Kirchhoff-Mindlin plate element TSL-T9, which is derived in this paper based on semiLoof constrains and rational shear interpolation. Thus the convergence can be guaranteed and no shear locking will happen. Furthermore, a simple hybrid procedure is suggested to improve the stress solutions, and the Updated Lagrangian formulae are also established for the geometrically nonlinear problems. Numerical results with solutions, which are solved by some other recent element models and the models in the commercial finite element software ABAQUS, are presented. They show that the proposed element, denoted as GMST18, exhibits excellent and better performance for the analysis of thin-think plates and shells in both linear and geometrically nonlinear problems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.396-401
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• 1997

Dynamic stability of cylindrical shells subjected to follower forces is analyzed in this paper. Motion of shells is formulated in curvilinear coordinates that is consistent with assumptions made in the Timoshenko beam and the Mindlin plate. Using the finite element method, the induced equations are reduced to an equation with finite degrees of freedom. The 9-node Lagrangian element is used, and reduced integration is used to avoid shear and membrane locking. The effects of thickness ratio on the dynamic stability of cylindrical shells are studied.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.199-223
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• 2003

The formulation of a non-linear shear deformable shell element is presented for the solution of stability problems of stiffened plates and shells. The formulation of the geometrical stiffness presented here is exactly defined on the midsurface and is efficient for analyzing stability problems of thick plates and shells by incorporating bending moment and transverse shear resultant force. As a result of the explicit integration of the tangent stiffness matrix, this formulation is computationally very efficient in incremental nonlinear analysis. The element is free of both membrane and shear locking behaviour by using the assumed strain method such that the element performs very well in the thin shells. By using six degrees of freedom per node, the present element can model stiffened plate and shell structures. The formulation includes large displacement effects and elasto-plastic material behaviour. The material is assumed to be isotropic and elasto-plastic obeying Von Mises's yield condition and its associated flow rules. The results showed good agreement with references and computational efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.173-176
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• 2000

Finite element model based on the Naghdi's shell theory in the general tensor-based form is formulated in the present study. Partial mixed variational functional for assumed strain is formulated in order to avoid the severe locking troubles known as transverse shear and membrane locking. The proposed assumed strain element in general tensor Naghdi's shell model provides very accurate solutions for thin shells in benchmark problems. In additions, linear elastic constitutive equations are given in the general curvilinear coordinate system including anisotropic layered structures. Thus laminated composited shell structures are easily analyzed in the present formulation.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.37-52
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• 2012

In this study, a new 4-node general shell element with 6 DOFs per node is presented. Drilling rotational degrees of freedom are introduced by the variational principle with an independent rotation field. In formulation of the element, substitute transverse shear strain fields are used to avoid shear locking, while four nonconforming modes are applied in the in-plane displacement fields as a remedy for membrane locking. In addition, a direct modification method for nonconforming modes is employed in the numerical implementation of nonconforming modes to represent constant strain states. A 9-points integration rule is adopted for volume integration in the computation of the element stiffness matrix. With the combined use of these techniques, the developed shell element has no spurious zero energy modes, and can represent a constant strain state. Several numerical tests are carried out to evaluate the performance of the new element developed. The test results show that the behavior of the elements is satisfactory.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.807-829
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• 2004

The Element-Based Lagrangian Formulation of a 9-node resultant-stress shell element is presented for the isotropic and anisotropic composite material. The effect of the coupling term between the bending strain and displacement has been investigated in the warping problem. The strains, stresses and constitutive equations based on the natural co-ordinate have been used throughout the Element-Based Lagrangian Formulation of the present shell element which offers an advantage of easy implementation compared with the traditional Lagrangian Formulation. The element is free of both membrane and shear locking behavior by using the assumed natural strain method such that the element performs very well in thin shell problems. In composite plates and shells, the transverse shear stiffness is defined by an equilibrium approach instead of using the shear correction factor. The arc-length control method is used to trace complex equilibrium paths in thin shell applications. Several numerical analyses are presented and discussed in order to investigate the capabilities of the present shell element. The results showed very good agreement compared with well-established formulations in the literature.