• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.595-610
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• 2002

This paper presents an efficiency of various non-conforming (NC) modes in development of a series of new finite elements with the special emphasis on 4-node quadrilateral elements. The NC modes have been used as a key scheme to improve the behaviors of various types of new finite elements, i.e., Mindlin plate bending elements, membrane elements with drilling degrees of freedom, flat shell elements. The NC modes are classified into three groups according to the 'correction constants' of 'Direct Modification Method'. The first group is 'basic NC modes', which have been widely used by a number of researchers in the finite element communities. The basic NC modes are effective to improve the behaviors of regular shaped elements. The second group is 'hierarchical NC modes' which improve the behaviors of distorted elements effectively. The last group is 'higher order NC modes' which improve the behaviors of plate-bending elements. When the basic NC modes are combined with hierarchical or higher order NC modes, the elements become insensitive to mesh distortions. When the membrane component of a flat shell has 'hierarchical NC modes', the membrane locking can be suppressed. A number of numerical tests are carried out to show the positive effect of aforementioned various NC modes incorporated into various types of finite elements.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.569-586
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• 1996

A new three-dimensional 8-node solid element with rotational degrees of freedom is presented. The proposed element is established by adding rotational degrees of freedom to the basic 8-node solid element. Thus the element has three translations and three rotational degrees of freedom per node. The corner rotations are introduced by transforming the hierarchical mid-edge displacements which are parabolic shape along an edge. The derivation of the element is based on the mixed variational principles in which the rotations are introduced as independent variables. Several types of non-conforming modes are selectively added to the displacement fields to obtain a series of improved elements. The resulting elements do not have the spurious zero energy modes and Poisson's ratio locking and pass patch test. Numerical examples show that presented non-conforming solid elements with rotational degrees of freedom show good performance even in the highly distorted meshes.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.3-17
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• 2003

This paper deals with the problems and their possible solutions in the development of finite element for analysis of shell. Based on these solution schemes, a series of flat shell elements are established which show no signs of membrane locking and other defects even though the coarse meshes are used. In the element formulation, non-conforming displacement modes are extensively used for improvement of element behaviors. A number of numerical tests are performed to prove the validity of the solutions to the problems involved in establishing a series of high performance flat shell elements. The test results reveal among others that the high accuracy and fast convergence characteristics of the elements are obtainable by the use of various non-conforming modes and that the ‘Direct Modification Method’ is a very useful tool for non-conforming elements to pass the patch tests. Furthermore, hierarchical and higher order non-conforming modes are proved to be very efficient not only to make an element insensitive to the mesh distortion but also to remove the membrane locking. Some numerical examples are solved to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the presented elements to practical engineering shell problems.