Solid shell element based on relative displacement concept

Abstract

The relative translational displacement concept can avoid the difficulties when involving the rotational degrees of freedom (DOF) and retain the features associated with the rotational DOF. In this paper, a new solid shell element based on relative displacement is proposed and studied. This new isoparameteric element ensures the C0 continuity between elements. To circumvent the shear-locking phenomenon, The assumed natural strain method is incorporated, and nonconforming shape functions are utilized to improve the performance of the proposed element. Verifications by standard numerical examples show that the performance of this solid shell element is excellent. © 2008 ASCE.