• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2018

This paper presents the assembling of multiple patches based on the single patch isogeometric formulation for the shear deformable shell element given in the previous study. The geometrically exact shell formulation has been accomplished with the shell theory based formulation and the generalized curvilinear coordinate system directly derived from the given NURBS geometry. For the knot elements matching across adjacent surfaces, the zero-th and first parametric continuity conditions are considered and the corresponding coupling constraints are implemented by a master-slave formulation between adjacent patches. The constraints are then enforced by a substitution method for condensation of the slave variables, thereby reducing the model size. Through numerical investigations, the important features of the first parametric continuity condition are confirmed. The performance of the multi-patch shell models is also examined comparing the rate of convergence of response coefficients for the zero and first order continuity conditions and continuity in coupling boundary between two patches is confirmed.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.345-352
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• 2024

In this paper, a multipatch isogeometric analysis method is developed for a multi-connected NURB patch model and applied to geometrically exact shell element analysis. When connecting different NURBS patches, isogeometric analysis may become inaccurate due to the density of control point meshes and discontinuity between patches. To solve this problem, Nitsche's method is applied to the isogeometric analysis method to ensure the compatibility of the displacement and traction between two patches by using a potential function defined as the product of the displacement difference and traction of the two patches. The final derived governing equation is formed as a symmetric stiffness matrix from this potential function. Since the added system matrices from the compatibility boundary conditions are calculated as a boundary integral between patches, the computational cost does not increase significantly. For the positive definiteness of the system equation, appropriate stability parameters are calculated through generalized eigenvalue analysis, and the stability parameters and solution accuracy are analyzed according to the density of the integration meshes between the two patches. This multipatch isogeometric analysis method is applied to geometrically exact shell elements considering first-order shear deformation, and it is confirmed that by using Nitsche's method in this shell analysis with multiple connected patches results in improved stress continuity as well as displacement continuity between patches.