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This paper deals with the well known degenerated shell element of Ahmad. The main concern focuses on the rank of the element stiffness matrix and the zero energy modes. Element formulation includes geometrical and material non‐linearities. The Lagrangian, heterosis and serendipity variants of displacement approximation are studied using full, selective or reduced in‐plane numerical integration. In the third direction the layered concept is adopted. The obtained results do not fully coincide with those published in References 2 and 3. The Figures presented in this paper, showing the displacement modes, clarify in a convenient form some of the element properties associated with particular element formulations. The work also shows the influence of the plastic and cracked material conditions on the stiffness matrix of the element.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

A previously presented finite element shell formulation is extended to the application of large strains. The finite elements are those based on the concept of ‘the degenerated solids’, which are widely used in non‐linear finite element programs. The constitutive equation of hyperelastic incompressible material is adopted and specialized to the Mooney‐Rivlin law. The additional state variable, the hydrostatic pressure, which occurs for incompressible materials, is eliminated on element level using the plane stress condition. Attention is drawn to the efficient calculation of the element matrices by applying a layer concept. The effectiveness of the proposed total Lagrangian formulation is demonstrated in a number of example problems.

The present paper is directed towards elasto‐plastic large deformation analysis of thin shells based on the concept of degenerated solids. The main aspect of the paper is the derivation of an efficient computational strategy placing emphasis on consistent elasto‐plastic tangent moduli and stress integration with the radial return method under the restriction of ‘zero normal stress condition’ in thickness direction. The advantageous performance of the standard Newton iteration using a consistent tangent stiffness matrix is compared to the classical scheme with an iteration matrix based on the infinitesimal elasto‐plastic constitutive tensor. Several numerical examples also demonstrate the effectiveness of the standard Newton iteration with respect to modified and quasi‐Newton methods like BFGS and others.

Three‐dimensional transient analysis of a submerged cylindrical shell is presented. Three‐dimensional trilinear eight‐noded isoparametric fluid element with pressure variable as unknown is coupled to a nine‐noded degenerate shell element. Staggered solution scheme is shown to be very effective for this problem. This allows significant flexibility in selecting an explicit or implicit integrator to obtain the solution in an economical way. Three‐dimensional transient analysis of the coupled shell fluid problem demonstrates that inclusion of bending mode is very important for submerged tube design—a factor which has not received attention, since most of the reported results are based on simplified two‐dimensional plane strain analysis.

The application of numerical techniques to the solution of practical problems which exist in rubber technology is described. Structures and components in the form of reinforced rubber shells are widely used in industry and prediction of their performance is complicated by both the anisotropic nature of composite construction and the incompressible behaviour of the basic material. A layered shell element is developed for the solution of such problems with general anisotropic behaviour independently permitted in each layer. The approach adopted permits the easy location of reinforcement patterns. Numerical solution is based on a single field formulation by eliminating at integrating point level the Lagrange multiplier imposing the incompressible constraint. Large deformation, including large rotation, behaviour is accommodated and a total Lagrangian solution process is adopted. The code developed permits the simulation of non‐conservative loading and its versatility is demonstrated by the solution of some practical examples.

A stiffened shell element is presented for geometrically non‐linear analysis of eccentrically stiffened shell structures. Modelling with this element is more accurate than with the traditional equivalent orthotropic plate element or with lumping stiffeners. In addition, mesh generation is easier than with the conventional finite element approach where the shell and beam elements are combined explicitly to represent stiffened structures. In the present non‐linear finite element procedure, the tangent stiffness matrix is derived using the updated Lagrangian formulation and the element strains, stresses, and internal force vectors are updated employing a corotational approach. The non‐vectorial characteristic of large rotations is taken into account. This stiffened shell element formulation is ideally suited for implementation into existing linear finite element programs and its accuracy and effectiveness have been demonstrated in several numerical examples.

An 8‐node solid element applicable for thin structures is presented. The element employs eighteen assumed stress modes and the conventional displacement interpolation. The formulation starts with the hybrid stress element proposed by Pian and Tong. The higher order stress modes are first decomposed into the ones which do and do not lead to thin‐element locking. The recently established methodology of admissible matrix formulation allows the decoupling of the above two categories of stress modes in the flexibility matrix without triggering element instability or failure of the patch test. The element stiffness can thus be decomposed into a series of matrices. Locking can be eliminated by adjusting the magnitude of the pertinent matrices. Accuracy and convergence rate of the present element are found to be competent to many of the existing plate and shell models.

A 4‐node flat shell quadrilateral finite element with 6 degrees of freedom per node, denoted QC5D‐SA, is presented. The element is an assembly of a modification of the drilling degree of freedom membrane presented by Ibrahimbegovic et al., and the assumed strain plate element presented by Bathe and Dvorkin. The part of the stiffness matrix associated with in—plane displacements and rotations is integrated over the element domain by a modified 5‐point reduced integration scheme, resulting in greater efficiency without the sacrifice of rank sufficiency. The scheme produces a soft higher order deformation mode which increases numerical accuracy. A large number of standard benchmark problems are analyzed. Some examples show that the effectiveness of a previously proposed “membrane locking correction” technique is significantly reduced when employing distorted elements. However, the element is shown to be generally accurate and in many cases superior to existing elements.

The purpose of this study is dedicated to use an efficient mixed strain finite element approach to develop a three-node triangular shell element. Moreover, large deformation analysis of the functionally graded material shells is the main contribution of this research. These target structures include thin or moderately thick panels.

Due to reach these goals, Green–Lagrange strain formulation with respect to small strains and large deformations with finite rotations is used. First, an efficient three-node triangular degenerated shell element is formulated using tensorial components of two-dimensional shell theory. Then, the variation of Young’s modulus through the thickness of shell is formulated by using power function. Note that the change of Poisson’s ratio is ignored. Finally, the governing linearized incremental relation was iteratively solved using a high potential nonlinear solution method entitled generalized displacement control.

Some well-known problems are solved to validate the proposed formulations. The suggested triangular shell element can obtain the exact responses of functionally graded (FG) shell structures, without any shear locking, instabilities and ill-conditioning, even by using fewer numbers of the elements. The obtained outcomes are compared with the other reference solutions. All findings demonstrate the accuracy and capability of authors’ element for analyzing FG shell structures.

A mixed strain finite element approach is used for nonlinear analysis of FG shells. These structures are curved thin and moderately thick shells. Small strains and large deformations with finite rotations are assumed.

FG shells are mostly made curved thin or moderately thick, and these structures have a lot of applications in the civil and mechanical engineering.

The social implication of this study is concerned with how technology impacts the world. In short, the presented scheme can improve structural analysis ways.

Developing an efficient three-node triangular element, for geometrically nonlinear analysis of FG doubly-curved thin and moderately thick shells, is the main contribution of the current research. Finite rotations are considered by using the Taylor’s expansion of the rotation matrix. Mixed interpolation of strain fields is used to alleviate the locking phenomena. Using fewer numbers of shell elements with fewer numbers of degrees of freedom can reduce the computational costs and errors significantly.