A Central Point-Based Discrete Shear Gap Method for Plates and Shells Analysis Using Triangular Elements

Abstract

In this paper, discrete shear gap method (DSG)-based central point of the three-node triangular element (CP-DSG3) is presented for both linear and geometrically nonlinear analysis of plates and shells. A fictitious central point is introduced as the base point of the DSG to overcome the anisotropy of the formerly proposed formulation. In the CP-DSG3, the discrete shear gap at each field node is deduced using rotations of all three nodes in local coordinate system, which makes it an isotropic triangular plate and shell element. At the same time, the CP-DSG3 inherits the advantages of shear-locking-free from the DSG. Moreover, a series of numerical examples consisting of standard patch test, linear and geometrically nonlinear problems have been investigated and the results demonstrate the excellent performance and accuracy of the proposed CP-DSG3.