Eight nodes or nine?

Abstract

Abstract The chief advantage claimed for nine‐noded shell elements is that they can pass constant curvature patch tests with bilinear element geometry while eight‐noded shell elements cannot. It is shown that a simple modification of the shape functions of an eight‐noded element can make this advantage disappear. Test results confirm this result and show that the performance of a modified eight‐noded element is similar to that of recently reported nine‐noded elements.