A solid shell element based on relative displacements concept: Theory and applications

Abstract

A general three-dimensional solid shell element based on relative displacements concept was proposed. The proposed solid shell element takes the strain and stress of the thickness direction into consideration and has two real surfaces, top and bottom, replacing the middle surface in conventional shell elements. The integration of the solid shell element is conducted in three dimensions simultaneously, which makes the variations of mechanical behavior in each direction clearly demonstrated. With these new features, it accurately simulates all types of shell structures, i.e. thin, moderately thick and thick shell structures. Therefore, the proposed solid shell element is applied to model engineering cases, including the composite laminated shell structures, vibrations of the very large floating structures, infinitesimal buckling of the carbon nanotube structures and buckling of the super ellipsoidal shells. The results also show that the proposed solid shell element is versatile and successful when applied in the abovementioned engineering fields.