[en] A four-node quadrilateral shell element with smoothed membrane-bending based on Mindlin-Reissner theory is proposed. The element is a combination of a plate bending and membrane element. It is based on mixed interpolation where the bending and membrane stiffness matrices are calculated on the boundaries of the smoothing cells while the shear terms are approximated by independent interpolation functions in natural coordinates. The proposed element is robust, computationally inexpensive and free of locking. Since the integration is done on the element boundaries for the bending and membrane terms, the element is more accurate than the MITC4 element for distorted meshes. This will be demonstrated for several numerical examples.
Disciplines :
Engineering, computing & technology: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
Nguyen-Thanh, N.; Department of Civil Engineering, University of Technology, VNU-HCM, 268 Ly Thuong Kiet, Viet Nam
Rabczuk, T.; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand
