COMBINED USE OF MULTIPLE IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES IN DEGENERATED SHELL ELEMENT

Abstract

The development of an improved degenerated shell element is presented. The displacement field of the new element is formed by adding the nonconforming displacement mode selectively. In the formulation of the element stiffness, three techniques were combined: (1) an enhanced interpolation of transverse shear strains in the natural coordinate system was used to overcome the shear locking problem; (2) the reduced integration technique in in-plane strains was used to avoid the membrane locking behavior; and (3) the nonconforming displacement modes were added selectively to improve the element performances. To examine the performance of the improved degenerated shell element, some benchmark problems are solved by this element. Numerical results indicate that the new element gives fast convergence and reliable solutions. This element is also free of serious shear/membrane locking problems and undesirable compatible/commutable spurious kinematic deformation modes.