A SET OF 3-DIMENSIONAL SOLID TO SHELL TRANSITION-ELEMENTS FOR STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS

The development of efficient and reliable transition elements which can connect solid and shell finite elements is of prime importance for an accurate modelling of the transition area between three-dimensional solid continuum and thin shell-like regions of complex structures. This paper presents a large set of C0 compatible transition elements that are based upon standard isoparametric solid and superparametric shell elements. The proposed elements, which incorporate the properties of both solids and shells, are adapted to structural dynamics and satisfy the classical finite element convergence requirements. Several numerical examples which compare the current formulation to previously published results or to analytical and experimental solutions are included.