A solid-shell Cosserat point element (SSCPE) for elastic thin structures at finite deformation

The objective of this study is to develop a new solid-shell element using the Cosserat point theory for modeling thin elastic structures at finite deformations. The point-wise Green-Lagrange strain tensor is additively decomposed into homogeneous and inhomogeneous parts. Only the latter part of the strain tensor is modified by the assumed natural strain ANS concept to avoid both curvature-thickness locking and transverse shear locking. To the authors’ knowledge, such modification has not been applied yet in the literature, and here it is referred to as the assumed natural inhomogeneous strain ANIS concept. Moreover, a new methodology for determining the constitutive coefficients of the strain energy function, which controls the inhomogeneous deformations, is proposed. The resulting coefficients ensure both accuracy, robustness, and elimination of all locking pathologies in the solid-shell Cosserat point element (SSCPE). The performance of the developed SSCPE is verified and tested via various benchmark problems and compared to other solid, shell, and solid-shell elements. These examples demonstrate that the SSCPE is accurate, robust, stable, free of locking, and can be used for modeling thin structures at both small and finite deformations.