Finite element analysis of thin laminated shells using a three-node flat triangular shell element is presented. The flat shell element is obtained by combining the Discrete Kirchhoff Theory (DKT) plate bending element and a membrane element derived fr...
Finite element analysis of thin laminated shells using a three-node flat triangular shell element is presented. The flat shell element is obtained by combining the Discrete Kirchhoff Theory (DKT) plate bending element and a membrane element derived from the Linear Strain Triangular (LST) element. The element is first thoroughly tested for linear static analysis of laminated plates and shells and geometrically nonlinear analysis.
The geometrically nonlinear analysis is performed using an updated Lagrangian formulation employing Green strain and Second Piola-Kirchhoff (PK2) stress measures. A linear displacement field is used for transverse displacement in order to compute the derivatives of the transverse displacement that are required to compute the geometric stiffness or the initial stress matrix.
The wind load is modeled as a non-uniform pressure load and the snow load as lumped concentrated load. Since the direction of the pressure load is assumed to be normal to the current configuration of the structure, it changes as the structure undergoes deformation. This is called the follower action.. As a result, the pressure load is a function of the displacements and hence contributes to the tangent stiffness matrix in the case of geometrically nonlinear analysis. This contribution (called the pressure stiffness) is in general unsymmetric and its determination is not straightforward, but can be systematically derived from the principle of virtual work. The follower effects of the pressure load have been included in the updated Lagrangian formulation of the flat shell element.
Several numerical examples are solved to demonstrate the accuracy of the formulation for both small and large rotation analysis of laminated plate and shell. The results are compared with those available in the existing literature and those obtained using the commercial finite element package ABAQUS and are found to be in good agreement.