Extension of the ‘solid‐shell’ concept for application to large elastic and large elastoplastic deformations

In the present contribution we extend a previously proposed so‐called solid–shell concept which incorporates only displacement degrees of freedom to the simulation of large elastic and large elastoplastic deformations of shells. Therefore, the modifications necessary for hyper‐elastic or elastoplastic material laws are discussed. These modifications concern the right Cauchy–Green tensor for large elastic deformations, respectively, the deformation gradient for elastoplasticity which then are consistent to the modified Green–Lagrange strains that are necessary for transverse shear and membrane locking free solid–shell element formulations. However, in addition to the locking mentioned above especially in the range of plasticity incompressibility locking becomes important. Thus, the second major aspect of this contribution is the discussion of several ways to avoid incompressibility locking also including the investigation of eigenmodes. Finally, a selective reduced integration scheme with reduced integration for the volumetric term is employed and described in detail, although it is limited to material laws which allow the decomposition into a volumetric and a deviatoric part. Some numerical examples show the range of application for the proposed elements. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A reduced integration solid‐shell finite element based on the EAS and the ANS concept—Geometrically linear problems

In this paper a new reduced integration eight‐node solid‐shell finite element is presented. The enhanced assumed strain (EAS) concept based on the Hu–Washizu variational principle requires only one EAS degree‐of‐freedom to cure volumetric and Poisson thickness locking. One key point of the derivation is the Taylor expansion of the inverse Jacobian with respect to the element center, which closely approximates the element shape and allows us to implement the assumed natural strain (ANS) concept to eliminate the curvature thickness and the transverse shear locking. The second crucial point is a combined Taylor expansion of the compatible strain with respect to the center of the element and the normal through the element center leading to an efficient and locking‐free hourglass stabilization without rank deficiency. Hence, the element requires only a single integration point in the shell plane and at least two integration points in thickness direction. The formulation fulfills both the membrane and the bending patch test exactly, which has, to the authors' knowledge, not yet been achieved for reduced integration eight‐node solid‐shell elements in the literature. Owing to the three‐dimensional modeling of the structure, fully three‐dimensional material models can be implemented without additional assumptions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A reduced integration solid‐shell finite element based on the EAS and the ANS concept—Large deformation problems

In this paper we address the extension of a recently proposed reduced integration eight‐node solid‐shell finite element to large deformations. The element requires only one integration point within the shell plane and at least two integration points over the thickness. The possibility to choose arbitrarily many Gauss points over the shell thickness enables a realistic and efficient modeling of the non‐linear material behavior. Only one enhanced degree‐of‐freedom is needed to avoid volumetric and Poisson thickness locking. One key point of the formulation is the Taylor expansion of the inverse Jacobian matrix with respect to the element center leading to a very accurate modeling of arbitrary element shapes. The transverse shear and curvature thickness locking are cured by means of the assumed natural strain concept. Further crucial points are the Taylor expansion of the compatible cartesian strain with respect to the center of the element as well as the Taylor expansion of the second Piola–Kirchhoff stress tensor with respect to the normal through the center of the element. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.