A shell element for finite strain analyses: hyperelastic material models

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a simple and efficient shell element for large strains hyper‐elastic analyses.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the classical MITC4 shell element formulation a 3D shell element with finite strain kinematics is developed. The new quadrilateral shell element has five dof per node and two global dof to model the thickness stretching. The shell element is implemented for hyperelastic material models and the application of different hyperelastic constitutive relations is discussed.

Findings

The results obtained considering three of the hyperelastic material models available in the literature are quite different when the developed strains are relatively high; this indicates that, for analyzing actual engineering examples, experimental data should be used to decide on the most suitable constitutive relation.

Originality/value

The 3D version of the MITC4 element was developed.

Citation

Toscano, R.G. and Dvorkin, E.N. (2007), "A shell element for finite strain analyses: hyperelastic material models", Engineering Computations, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 514-535. https://doi.org/10.1108/02644400710755898