APPLICATIONS OF HIGHER-ORDER COROTATIONAL STRETCH THEORIES TO NON-LINEAR FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS

A higher order corotational finite formulation which accounts for initial curvature and moderate variations of rigid body rotation within an element is developed. This formulation is applied to several shallow arches loaded by a concentrated load. It is shown that this formulation converges to the exact solution more rapidly than a lower order corotational formulation as the mesh is refined, at little additional computational cost. However, as the mesh is refined, the difference between low order and higher order corotational formulations diminishes. An elastic plastic shallow arch solution with a limit point is also presented. © 1979.