Open Access

ARTICLE

A Geometrically Exact Triangular Shell Element Based on Reproducing Kernel DMS-Splines

Hanjiang Chang^1,2,*, Qiang Tian¹, Haiyan Hu¹

1 School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China
2 China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Beijing, 100076, China

* Corresponding Author: Hanjiang Chang. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Integration of Geometric Modeling and Numerical Simulation)

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2023, 136(1), 825-860. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2023.022774

Received 25 March 2022; Accepted 19 September 2022; Issue published 05 January 2023

Abstract

To model a multibody system composed of shell components, a geometrically exact Kirchhoff-Love triangular shell element is proposed. The middle surface of the shell element is described by using the DMS-splines, which can exactly represent arbitrary topology piecewise polynomial triangular surfaces. The proposed shell element employs only nodal displacement and can automatically maintain C¹ continuity properties at the element boundaries. A reproducing DMS-spline kernel skill is also introduced to improve computation stability and accuracy. The proposed triangular shell element based on reproducing kernel DMS-splines can achieve an almost optimal convergent rate. Finally, the proposed shell element is validated via three static problems of shells and the dynamic simulation of a flexible multibody system undergoing both overall motions and large deformations.

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Graphical Abstract

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