Analysis of Shell Structure using GFEM

Abstract

This paper proposes a numerical simulation method for analyzing Mindlin-Reissner shell structure using GFEM (Generalized FEM). GFEM can be considered as the generalization of FEM by making the node displacement not constant value but the function. The formulation of GFEM applied to Mindlin-Reissner shell element is shown, and coordinate transformation for GFEM is presented. Several examples are shown to show the validity and accuracy of this method. It was shown that GFEM is effective against the distortion of the element shape compared with traditional FEM, especially in-plane deformation. It was also shown that by changing the degree of polynomial locally, it is possible to control the accuracy locally.