A SIMPLE CLASS OF FINITE-ELEMENTS FOR PLATE AND SHELL PROBLEMS .2. AN ELEMENT FOR THIN SHELLS, WITH ONLY TRANSLATIONAL DEGREES OF FREEDOM

This paper is the second of a pair which discuss the development of a class of overlapping hinged bending finite elements, which are suitable for the analysis of thin-shell, plate and beam structures. These elements rely on a simple physically appealing analogy, in which overlapping hinged facets are used to represent bending effects. They are based on quadratic overlapping assumed displacement functions, which results in constant stress/strain representation. Only translational nodal degrees of freedom are necessary, which is a significant advantage over most other currently available beam, plate and shell finite elements which employ translational, rotational and higher-order nodal variables. In paper I the hinged bending element concept has been introduced, and the hinged beam bending (HBB) and hinged plate bending (HPB) elements formulated. In the present paper these concepts are extended to develop a hinged shell bending (HSB) element. The HSB element can be readily combined with the constant strain triangular (CST) plane stress finite element for the modelling of thin-shell structures; and the combined HSB CST element is tested against a number of 'standard' thin-shell problems. The present paper, like paper I, is conducted entirely in the context of small-displacement elastic behaviour.