A non-conforming plate facet-shell finite element with drilling stiffness

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2011

Authors

Rui António Moreira (Author) Other; J. Dias Rodrigues (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Finite Elements in Analysis and Design

Vol. 47

Pages: 973-981

ISSN: 0168-874X

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 7 Citations

Scopus - 7 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-NKH

DOI: 10.1016/j.finel.2011.03.013

Abstract (EN): When a facet-shell finite element is used to represent a three-dimensional geometry, an incomplete connection of the rotations between adjacent finite elements may occur. Infact, the in-plane rotations from one finite element may not assemble correctly to the rotation degrees-of-freedom of an adjacent finite element, simply because there is a missing rotation degree-of-freedom, the out-plane rotation. To avoid this difficulty, the facet-shell formulation must provide a complete description of the nodal translation and rotation fields, allowing the definition of the six spatial degrees-of-freedom for each node of the finite element. Despite the huge interest on providing a solution for this issue, which is demonstrated by the sporadic but remarkable studies on the subject published by renowned researchers in the field, there is still a lack in valuable, accurate and cost effective solutions, especially for quadrilateral finite elements. In this study a non-conforming quadrilateral facet-shell finite element, providing a complete degrees-of-freedom field, is formulated and analyzed. The assessment of the proposed finite element is performed by comparing the numerical results from a set of usually applied benchmark problems with those obtained from classic and up-to-date finite elements with drilling stiffness and a similar finite element without out-plane rotation. The proposed finite element is capable to model planar and non-planar structures, and the numerical results achieved with its application onto several case studies proved its accuracy and the ability to describe the complete displacement field.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9