Open Access

ARTICLE

Quasi-Conforming Triangular Reissner-Mindlin Shell Elements by Using Timoshenko's Beam Function

Changsheng Wang¹, Ping Hu^1,2

1 School of Automotive Engineering, Faculty of Vehicle Engineering and Mechanics, State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian116024, P.R. China.
2 pinghu@dlut.edu.cn

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2012, 88(5), 325-350. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmes.2012.088.325

Abstract

Based on the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory, two 3-node triangular flat shell elements QCS31 and QCS32 are proposed by using Timoshenko's beam function within the framework of quasi-conforming technique. The exact displacement function of the Timoshenko's beam is used as the displacement on the element boundary in the bending part and the interpolated inner field function is also derived by the function. In the shear part the re-constitution technique is adopted. The drilling degrees of freedom are added in the membrane part to improve membrane behavior. The proposed elements can be used for the analysis of both moderately thick and thin plates/shells, and the convergence for the very thin case can be ensured theoretically. The integration of the elements is performed analytically and features an explicit form of the stiffness matrix, which is more precise and efficient from a mathematical point of view. The numerical tests and comparisons with other existing solutions in the literatures suggest that the present elements are competitive.

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Keywords

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