Development of shear locking-free shell elements using an enhanced assumed strain formulation

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2002

Authors

José M. A. César de Sá (Author) FEUP; Renato M. Natal Jorge (Author) FEUP; Robertt A. Fontes Valente (Author) Other; Pedro M. Almeida Areias (Author) Other

Journal

Title: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering

Vol. 53 No. 7

Pages: 1721-1750

ISSN: 0029-5981

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

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ISI Web of Knowledge - 56 Citations

Scopus - 75 Citations

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Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Other engineering and technologies

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-000-Q1E

DOI: 10.1002/nme.360

Abstract (EN): The degenerated approach for shell elements of Ahmad and co-workers is revisited in this paper. To avoid transverse shear locking effects in four-node bilinear elements, an alternative formulation based on the enhanced assumed strain (EAS) method of Simo and Rifai is proposed directed towards the transverse shear terms of the strain field. In the first part of the work the analysis of the null transverse shear strain subspace for the degenerated element and also for the selective reduced integration (SRI) and assumed natural strain (ANS) formulations is carried out. Locking effects are then justified by the inability of the null transverse shear strain subspace, implicitly defined by a given finite element, to properly reproduce the required displacement patterns. Illustrating the proposed approach, a remarkably simple single-element test is described where ANS formulation fails to converge to the correct results, being characterized by the same performance as the degenerated shell element. The adequate enhancement of the null transverse shear strain subspace is provided by the EAS method, enforcing Kirchhoff hypothesis for low thickness values and leading to a framework for the development of shear-locking-free shell elements. Numerical linear elastic tests show improved results obtained with the proposed formulation. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 30