APPLICATION OF THE ZIENKIEWICZ-ZHU ERROR ESTIMATOR FOR PLATE AND SHELL ANALYSIS

An effective and efficient error estimation scheme for finite element plate and shell analysis is presented. The error estimate method proposed is applicable to all the plate and shell elements developed using either classical plate and shell or continuum mechanics theories. The global error in energy norm is computed by summing all the elemental errors. The method is well suited for adaptive mesh refinement as the error contribution for each element is known. Demonstration examples using uniform and adaptive refinement schemes for both the plate and shell analysis show the effectiveness of the method proposed. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd