ANALYSIS OF PARABOLOID OF REVOLUTION TYPE SHELL STRUCTURES USING ISOPARAMETRIC DOUBLY CURVED SHELL ELEMENTS

A general and versatile formulation for the analysis of doubly curved shell structures using a curved quadratic isoparametric element has been described previously (Bimalendu Ghosh and J. N. Bandyopadhyay, Comput. Struct. 33, 717-728 1989). Three doubly curved isoparametric thin shell elements, viz. eight-, nine- and 12-node elements are used herein for the analysis of a shell of positive Gaussian curvature. The results of the eigenvalue tests performed on the paraboloid of revolution shell elements show proper inclusion of the rigid body modes in all of the elements. The present authors' results using the three elements are compared with those of earlier investigators. The effects of Poisson's ratio on the shell characteristics are studied in detail using only the eight-node element. © 1990.