A NEW FINITE-ELEMENT FORMULATION FOR CYLINDRICAL-SHELLS OF COMPOSITE-MATERIAL

In this paper we discuss theoretical and numerical aspects of the formulation of a cylindrical shell element for composite materials. The element is based on a direct introduction of the finite element approach into the shell equations, especially for the base vectors, see Simo, J. C. et al. (1989-1992) [Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engng (Part I) 72, 267-304, (Part II) 73, 53-92, (Part III) 79, 21-70, (Part IV) 81, 91-126, (Part V) %, 133-171] and Gruttmann et al. (1989) [Ing. Arch. 59, 54-67]. Introducing the special geometry of cylinders we end up with a simple but highly accurate element which can be formulated in an easy way and which shows excellent convergence behavior in linear and nonlinear problems.