Hermitian-method for the nonlinear analysis of arbitrary thin shell structures

The present paper couples the geometrically nonlinear shear deformation theory of thin shell structures [finite rotations; small strains; Baar (1987)] with the Hermitian-method (Collatz 1966; Almannai 1976).It presents a brief review of a nonlinear theory considering shear deformations by means of an operator formulation and the transformation of partial differential equations into algebraic equations by means of appropriate two-dimensional finite-difference operators. The nonlinearity can be treated by an incremental-iterative procedure. Finally the efficiency of the developed numerical method will be demonstrated by selected examples. Special attention is focussed on the convergence behaviour and the reliability of geometrically interpretable forces with respect to engineering applications.