A New Three Nodes Shell Element With Transverse Shear

Abstract

This paper proposes a new three node curved shell element. The approach used in the development of the new element is based on the Marguerre shallow shell theory which incorporates the effects of initial curvature (out-of plane displacement) of the shell but avoids locking and kinematic mode created by the coupling between the membrane and the bending deformations. The decomposition mode technique is used to alleviate the membrane locking problem and also to improve the membrane bending performance. In the formulation of the new element, the Mindlin-Reissner kinematic hypothesis is adopted to include the transverse shear effect. The Discrete Strain Theory (DST) is used to avoid the shear locking problem found in thin shells. The resulting element is the superimposition of the Constant Strain Triangle (CST) element on the Discrete Shear Triangle (DST) element. This formulation enables us to obtain a shell element, which does not produce spurious singular modes, avoids locking phenomena, and excels in calculation efficiency. The results of several examples show that, the proposed shell elements accuracy and convergence of the proposed numerical modelieure quite satisfactory, desipite its simplicity