Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14

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Computers and Structures

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruc

The MITC4+ shell element in geometric nonlinear analysis

Yeongbin Ko a, Phill-Seung Lee a,⇑, Klaus-Jürgen Bathe b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: We present the large displacement and rotation formulation of the new MITC4+ shell finite element
Received 27 December 2016 recently proposed by Ko, Lee and Bathe for linear analysis (Ko et al., 2017) and demonstrate the perfor-
Accepted 27 January 2017 mance in geometric nonlinear analysis. The element shows in linear analysis an almost ideal convergence
behavior since shear and membrane locking is alleviated using the MITC approach. We show now that
using the total Lagrangian formulation for large displacements and large rotations, the element is also
Keywords: robust and efficient in nonlinear analysis. We demonstrate the element performance through the solu-
Shell structures
tions of various benchmark problems and reach the important conclusion that the MITC4+ shell element
4-node shell finite elements
MITC method
performs reliably and well even when the mesh undergoes large displacements and significant distor-
Large displacements and rotations tions during the response.
Shear and membrane locking Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reliability in geometric nonlinear analysis

1. Introduction both linear and nonlinear analyses. However, in the original formu-
lation of the MITC4 shell element, membrane locking was not trea-
For the analysis of shell structures, developing ‘‘ideal” shell ted, and thus solution accuracy can deteriorate when curved
finite elements that satisfy the ellipticity, consistency and inf-sup geometries are modeled with distorted meshes [1,2]. Following
conditions has been of great interest [1–10]. Such shell elements various attempts to alleviate membrane locking of 4-node shell
should pass the basic tests (the isotropy, zero energy mode and elements [26–28], we recently presented the new MITC4+ shell
patch tests), show uniformly optimal convergence behavior in element for general linear analysis [1]. This element satisfies all
any shell problem irrespective of the shell geometry, loading and the basic element tests, contains no parameter to adjust, and
boundary conditions, and do so when regular and even distorted shows an almost optimal convergence behavior in the solutions
meshes are used [7–10]. Also, the shell elements need to perform of a ‘behavior-encompassing’ set of benchmark problems using
equally well in geometric nonlinear analysis where an effective regular and distorted meshes. The fact that the element perfor-
behavior in the nonlinear response predictions is important [4]. mance is also very good in highly distorted meshes is particularly
In geometric nonlinear analysis of shell structures, significant noteworthy and makes this element an excellent candidate for
mesh distortions can occur as the geometry of the elements general large displacement and rotation nonlinear analysis.
changes during the response [11–15]. These element geometric This expectation is reasonable because our experience is that if
changes can lead to locking in bending-dominated shell problems a well-formulated MITC element has been established for linear
[4,8], that is, an overly stiff behavior of the shell discretization is analysis, then this element formulation can directly be extended
seen, which can be particularly severe when 4-node shell elements to geometric nonlinear analysis without introducing instabilities
are used to model thin shell structures [1,2,4,8]. Hence, in geomet- in the element, like seen in formulations based on incompatible
ric nonlinear analysis, locking due to the discretization undergoing modes and enhanced assumed strains [4,29,30]. In addition, the
large displacements can lead to erroneous predictions of load- incompatible modes and enhanced assumed strain elements are
displacement trajectories and critical loads. computationally more expensive.
The MITC (Mixed Interpolation of Tensorial Components) In this paper, we present the geometric nonlinear formulation
method [1–4,16–25] has been used effectively to remedy shear of the new MITC4+ shell. We develop the assumed shear and mem-
and membrane locking. The classical 4-node MITC shell element brane fields of the element for the total Lagrangian formulation
(labeled as MITC4 element) has been widely used in practice for using the Green-Lagrange strains and incremental Green-
Lagrange strains to obtain the tangent stiffness matrix and internal
⇑ Corresponding author. force vector [4]. We demonstrate the performance of the element
E-mail address: [email protected] (P.-S. Lee).
in geometric nonlinear solutions by solving various shell problems

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruc.2017.01.015
0045-7949/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14

with uniform and distorted meshes. To assess the accuracy of the Using Eq. (1) in Eq. (3), we obtain
solutions, we compare the predicted response with analytical data
X4
fX 4
and finite element solutions obtained using the MITC4 and MITC9 u¼ hi ðr; sÞðtþDt xi  t xi Þ þ ai hi ðr; sÞðtþDt Vin  t Vin Þ; ð4aÞ
shell elements. An important conclusion is that the new MITC4+ i¼1
2 i¼1
shell element performs well even when a mesh undergoes signifi-
with
cant displacements that could induce some locking, like might be
seen in solutions using the classical MITC4 shell element. tþDt
xi  t xi ¼ ui ix þ v i iy þ wi iz ; ð4bÞ
and to quadratic order
2. Geometric nonlinear formulation
tþDt 1
Vin  t Vin ¼ hi  t Vin þ hi  ðhi  t Vin Þ; hi ¼ t Vi1 ai þ t Vi2 bi ; ð4cÞ
In this section, we present the geometric nonlinear formulation 2
of the MITC4+ shell element. In the total Lagrangian formulation, in which ix , iy and iz are the base vectors of the global Cartesian
the left superscript t denotes ‘‘time” for a general analysis (in static coordinate system, and at node i, ui , v i and wi are the corresponding
solutions ‘‘time” simply denotes the load step and configuration)
displacement components, t Vi1 and t Vi2 are unit vectors orthogonal
and the left subscript 0 is used to denote the initial (reference) con-
figuration [4]. to the director vector (t Vin ) and to each other, and ai and bi denote
the rotations of the director vector about t Vi1 and t Vi2 , respectively
2.1. Geometry and displacement interpolations [4].
Substituting from Eqs. (4b) and (4c) into Eq. (4a), the incremen-
The geometry of the MITC4+ shell element in the configuration tal displacement is obtained as
at time t shown in Fig. 1 is interpolated using [1,2]
X
4 uðr; s; fÞ ¼ um þ fðub1 þ ub2 Þ; ð5aÞ
t
xðr; s; fÞ ¼ t xm þ ft xb with t xm ¼ hi ðr; sÞt xi and
i¼1 where
1 X
4
X
4
t
xb ¼ ai hi ðr; sÞt Vin ; ð1Þ um ¼ hi ðr; sÞui ; ð5bÞ
2 i¼1 i¼1

where hi ðr; sÞ is the two-dimensional interpolation function of the

standard isoparametric procedure corresponding to node i, t xi is 1X 4
1X 4
ub1 ¼ ai hi ðr; sÞðl Vi2 ai þ l Vi1 bi Þ; ub2 ¼  ai hi ðr; sÞða2i þ b2i Þl Vin :
the position vector of node i, and ai and t i
Vn
denote the shell thick- 2 i¼1 4 i¼1
ness and the director vector at the node, see Fig. 1. ð5cÞ
The following representation of interpolation function hi ðr; sÞ is
We next group the displacement terms in Eq. (5) as
useful in the element formulation:
1
hi ðr; sÞ ¼ ð1 þ ni rÞð1 þ gi sÞ with i ¼ 1; 2; 3; 4; u1 ¼ um þ fub1 ; u2 ¼ fub2 ; ð6Þ
4
where u1 and u2 contain the linear and quadratic terms of unknown
½ n1 n2 n3 n4  ¼ ½ 1 1 1 1 ; displacements and rotations, respectively.
ð2Þ
½ g1 g2 g3 g4  ¼ ½ 1 1 1 1 ;
2.2. Green-Lagrange strains
in which ni and gi are permuted together.
The incremental displacement vector u from the configuration The covariant Green-Lagrange strain components in the config-
at time t to the configuration at time t þ Dt is
uration at time t with respect to the reference configuration at time
uðr; s; fÞ ¼ tþDt xðr; s; fÞ  t xðr; s; fÞ: ð3Þ 0 are defined by
1 t
0 ij ðr; s; fÞ ¼ ð g  t gj  0 gi  0 gj Þ; ð7Þ
t
e
ζ 2 i
t
in which t gi ¼ @@rx are covariant base vectors with r1 ¼ r, r2 ¼ s,
s i

r3 ¼ f.
r Using Eq. (3) in Eq. (7) applied at time t and t þ Dt, the incre-
2 1 mental covariant strain components are

tþDt 1 t 
4 0 ij ðr; s; fÞ ¼ 0
e e ij ðr; s;fÞ  t0 e ij ðr;s;fÞ ¼ g  u;j þ u;i  t gj þ u;i  u;j ;
t 2 i
Vn3 ð8Þ
@u
with u;i ¼ @r .
i
t
V13 Substituting from Eq. (6) into Eq. (8) and retaining only the
3 t
z strain terms up to second order of unknowns, the incremental
V23 strain components can be written as
iz
iy 0 ij ðr; s; fÞ
e ¼ 0 eij ðr; s; fÞ þ 0 gij ðr; s; fÞ; ð9Þ
y
ix with
x
1 t 
0 eij ðr; s; fÞ ¼ g  u1;j þ u1;i  t gj ;
Fig. 1. A standard 4-node quadrilateral continuum mechanics based shell finite 2 i
element in the configuration at time t.
 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14 3

s in which
t 7\LQJSRLQWV t m 1 t  1 
ε
0 rζ const. 0 ije ¼ xm;i  t xm;j þ t xm;j  t xm;i  0 xm;i  0 xm;j þ 0 xm;j  0 xm;i ;
2 2
1 ð11bÞ

t ( A) t b1
   
0 rζε 0 ije ¼ t xm;i  t xb;j þ t xm;j  t xb;i  0 xm;i  0 xb;j þ 0 xm;j  0 xb;i ; ð11cÞ

t b2 1 t  1 
0 ije ¼ xb;i  t xb;j þ t xb;j  t xb;i  0 xb;i  0 xb;j þ 0 xb;j  0 xb;i ;
2 2
t ( D)
ε
0 sζ
t (C )
ε
0 sζ r ð11dÞ
1 1
t t with
ε
0 sζ const. ε
0 sζ const.
@ t xm @ t xb
t (B)
t
xm;i ¼ ; t
xb;i ¼ :
0 rζε @r i @r i
m
1 In Eq. (11a), the term t0 e ij is the covariant in-plane strain at the
shell mid-surface (f ¼ 0), which in general can induce membrane
t
ε const. locking.
0 rζ
In the geometric nonlinear formulation of the MITC4+ shell ele-
Fig. 2. Tying positions (A), (B), (C) and (D) for the assumed transverse shear strain ment, the assumed membrane strain fields are applied based on
field of the MITC4 shell element. The constant transverse shear strain conditions are the current configuration. Hence the covariant membrane strain
imposed along its edges. in Eq. (11b) is considered

t m 1t m 10 m
0 ije ¼ g  g with i; j ¼ 1; 2; ð12aÞ
2 ij 2 ij
1 
0 gij ðr; s; fÞ ¼ u1;i  u1;j þ t gi  u2;j þ u2;i  t gj with with
2
@u1 @u2
t m
g ij ¼ t xm;i  t xm;j þ t xm;j  t xm;i ; ð12bÞ
u1;i ¼ ; u2;i ¼ ;
@r i @ri
where 0 eij and 0 gij are the linear and nonlinear parts, respectively s
[4,31]. 7\LQJSRLQWV

2.3. Assumed Green-Lagrange strains

1
To alleviate shear locking, the assumed transverse shear strains
t m ( A)
of the classical MITC4 shell element are used [2] 0 rrε
1 1
t~
0 rfe ¼ ð1 þ sÞt0 e ðAÞ t ðBÞ
rf þ ð1  sÞ0 e rf ;
2 2
t~ 1 t ðCÞ 1 ðDÞ
0 e sf ¼ ð1 þ rÞ0 e sf þ ð1  rÞt0 e sf ; ð10Þ r
t m( D) t m (C )
2 2 ε
0 ss ε
0 ss
1 t m( E )
ε 1
where the tying positions ðAÞ, ðBÞ, ðCÞ and ðDÞ are shown in Fig. 2 0 rs

[1,2,8].
In order to alleviate membrane locking, we separate the corre-
t m( B)
sponding membrane strains from the in-plane strains. The covari- 0 rrε
ant in-plane strains in Eq. (7) are expressed as
1
t m b1 b2
t
0 ije ¼ e þ 0 ij e þ
f t0 ij f2t0 ij e with i; j ¼ 1; 2; ð11aÞ
Fig. 4. Tying positions (A), (B), (C), (D) and (E) for the assumed membrane strain
field.

s
t r
2 n 1 2 1
t
xs 4
t
xr 4 2t x d
P

3 3

Fig. 3. Characteristic vectors for the element geometry at time t. (a) Two in-plane vectors t xr and t xs , and the plane P with normal vector t n. (b) Distortion vector t xd .
4 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14

0 m
g ij ¼ 0 xm;i  0 xm;j þ 0 xm;j  0 xm;i : ð12cÞ cr ðt cr  1Þ
t
cr ðt cr þ 1Þ
t
t
aA ¼ ; t
aB ¼ ;
2t d 2t d
We next define the three characteristic vectors in the configura- t
cs ð cs  1Þ
t t
cs ð cs þ 1Þ
t
tion at time t [1]
t
aC ¼ ; t
aD ¼ ;
2t d 2t d
1X 4
1X 4
1X 4
t
xr ¼ n t xi ; t
xs ¼ g t xi ; t
xd ¼ n g t xi ; ð13Þ 2t c r t c s
4 i¼1 i 4 i¼1 i 4 i¼1 i i t
aE ¼ td
; t
d ¼ t c2r þ t c2s  1; t
cr ¼ t mr  t xd ; t
cs ¼ t ms  t xd :

in which ni and gi are given in Eq. (2). The geometric representa- ð15eÞ
tions of the three vectors at time t are shown in Fig. 3. Using the assumed membrane strain fields, the in-plane strain
As shown in Fig. 3(a), the two vectors t xr and t xs form the plane components are constructed
P with the normal vector t n
t~
e ¼ t0 ~e mij þ f t0 e b1 2t b2
ij þ f 0 e ij with i; j ¼ 1; 2: ð16Þ
xr  t xs
t 0 ij
t
n¼ t ; ð14Þ
k xr  t xs k The shell-aligned local Cartesian coordinate system in the con-
t r t s figuration at time 0 is defined using the unit vectors 0 Li , i ¼ 1; 2; 3,
and the dual base vectors m and m on the plane
0
g3 0
g2  0 L3
t
mri  t xrj ¼ dij ; t mri  t n ¼ 0 with i; j ¼ 1; 2: 0
L3 ¼ ; 0
L1 ¼ ; 0
L2 ¼ 0 L3  0 L1 ; ð17Þ
k0 g3 k k0 g2  0 L3 k
For the MITC4+ shell element, the following assumed field is
and the corresponding local strain components are
used for the covariant membrane strain [1]
t
0 ije ¼ t0 ~e kl ð0 Li  0 gk Þð0 Lj  0 gl Þ with 0 gi  0 g j ¼ dij : ð18Þ
t ~m 1t m 10 m
0 ije ¼ g~  g~ with i; j ¼ 1; 2 ð15aÞ
2 ij 2 ij
1
(a)
where
0.9
t ~m 1 
g rr ¼ 1  2t aA þ s þ 2t aA  s2 t g mðAÞ
rr
2 0.8
1  
þ 1  2t aB  s þ 2t aB  s2 t g mðBÞ rr
2 0.7
   
þ t aC 1 þ s2 t g mðCÞ
ss þ t
aD 1 þ s2 t g mðDÞ
ss
  0.6
þ t aE 1 þ s2 t g mðEÞ
rs ; ð15bÞ
utip wtip
Load 0.5
t ~m
    ( P / Pmax )
g ss ¼ t aA 1 þ r g rr
mðAÞ
þ t aB 1 þ r g mðBÞ
2 t
rr
2 t

0.4
1 
þ 1  2t aC þ r þ 2t aC  r2 t g mðCÞ
ss
2 0.3
1 
þ 1  2t aD  r þ 2t aD  r2 t g mðDÞ
ss
2 0.2
 
þ aE 1 þ r g rs ;
t 2 t mðEÞ
ð15cÞ reference
0.1
16x1 MITC4
16x1 MITC4+
t ~m 1  1 
g rs ¼ r þ 4t aA  rs t g mðAÞ
rr þ r þ 4t aB  rs t g mðBÞ
rr
0
4 4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1  1   1
þ s þ 4t aC  rs t g mðCÞss þ s þ 4t aD  rs t g ssmðDÞ (b)
4 4
  0.9
þ 1 þ t aE  rs t g mðEÞ
rs ; ð15dÞ
in which the tying positions ðAÞ, ðBÞ, ðCÞ, ðDÞ and ðEÞ for the corre- 0.8

sponding strain components are shown in Fig. 4, and the geometric

0.7
coefficients are
wtip utip
(a) (b) 0.6
P
M
Load 0.5
( M / M max )
0.4

L 0.3

0.2
z
analytic solution
0.1
16x1 MITC4
x y 16x1 MITC4+
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
b
Displacements
Fig. 5. Cantilever problems (16  1 mesh, width b ¼ 1:0, thickness a ¼ 0:1,
E ¼ 1:2  106 and m ¼ 0:0). (a) Case of the tip shearing force (L ¼ 10:0). (b) Case of Fig. 6. Load-displacement curves for the cantilever. (a) Case of the tip shearing
the tip moment (L ¼ 12:0). force. (b) Case of the tip moment.
 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14 5

P Pmax

P 0.25 Pmax

sh
l me
In itia

z
x y

M 0.25M max

M
M 0.5M max

esh
lm
tia
z Ini

x y

M M max

Fig. 7. Deformed shapes of the cantilever. (a) Case of the tip shearing force. (b) Case of the tip moment.

P 2.4. Assumed incremental Green-Lagrange strains

From the assumed Green-Lagrange strains in Section 2.3, we

B proceed to obtain the corresponding assumed incremental
Green-Lagrange strains in a consistent manner.
A For the transverse shear we use the following assumed incre-
Ro Ri mental shear strains
z
1 ðAÞ 1 ðBÞ 1 ðCÞ 1 ðDÞ
0~ ð1þsÞ0 erf þ ð1sÞ0 erf ; 0 ~esf ¼ ð1þrÞ0 esf þ ð1rÞ0 esf ;
x y erf ¼
2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1
~ rf ¼ ð1þsÞ0 gðAÞ
0g
ðBÞ
~ ðCÞ ðDÞ
rf þ ð1sÞ0 grf ; 0 gsf ¼ ð1þrÞ0 gsf þ ð1rÞ0 gsf ;
2 2 2 2
ð19Þ

where the tying positions ðAÞ, ðBÞ, ðCÞ and ðDÞ are shown in Fig. 2
[1,2,4,8].
Fig. 8. Slit annular plate problem (5  40 mesh, Ro ¼ 10:0, Ri ¼ 6:0, thickness The linear and nonlinear parts of the incremental covariant in-
a ¼ 0:03, E ¼ 2:1  107 and m ¼ 0:0).
plane strains in Eq. (9) are expressed as
6 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14

0.8
(a)
P Pmax
0.7

0.6

sh
me
ed
0.5

rm
fo
wA wB

De
Load 0.4
( P /( Ro Ri ) )

0.3 Initial shape

0.2

0.1 reference
3x24 MITC4
3x24 MITC4+
0
z
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
x y
0.8
(b)

0.7

0.6

0.5
Fig. 10. Deformed shape for the slit annular plate problem.
wA wB
Load 0.4
( P /( Ro Ri ) )

0.3

P
0.2
L
ge
ed

0.1 reference
A
ee

5x40 MITC4
Fr

5x40 MITC4+
0 β
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Displacements
D
Fig. 9. Load-displacement curves for the slit annular plate problem. (a) 3  24
mesh. (b) 5  40 mesh.

¼ 0 em 2 b2 z
ij þ f 0 eij þ f 0 eij ;
b1
0 eij

0 gij ¼ 0 gmij þ f0 gb1 2

ij þ f 0 gij
b2
with i; j ¼ 1; 2; ð20aÞ B x y
in which
ge

C
ed

1 t
m
0 eij ¼ ð xm;i  um;j þ t xm;j  um;i Þ; ð20bÞ R
ee

2
Fr

1 t
b1
0 eij ¼ ð xm;i  ub1;j þ t xm;j  ub1;i þ t xb;i  um;j þ t xb;j  um;i Þ; ð20cÞ
2

1 t P
b2
0 eij ¼ ð xb;i  ub1;j þ t xb;j  ub1;i Þ; ð20dÞ
2 Fig. 11. Pull-out of a free cylindrical shell structure (12  12 mesh, R ¼ 4:953,
L ¼ 10:35, thickness a ¼ 0:094, E ¼ 1:05  107 and m ¼ 0:3125).
1
0 gmij ¼ um;i  um;j ; ð20eÞ
2
with
1
0 g b1
ij ¼ ðum;i  ub1;j þ um;j  ub1;i þ t xm;i  ub2;j þ t xm;j  ub2;i Þ; ð20fÞ @ t xm @ t xb @um
2 t
xm;i ¼ ; t
xb;i ¼ ; um;i ¼ ;
@r i @r i @ri
1 @ub1 @ub2
0 ij ¼
gb2 ðub1;i  ub1;j þ t xb;i  ub2;j þ t xb;j  ub2;i Þ; ð20gÞ ub1;i ¼ ; ub2;i ¼ :
2 @r i @r i
 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14 7

In Eq. (20a), the 0 em m

ij and 0 gij terms are the linear and nonlinear Using the shell-aligned local Cartesian coordinate system
incremental covariant in-plane strains at the shell mid-surface defined in Eq. (17), the linear and nonlinear parts of the incremen-
(f ¼ 0); these in-plane membrane strains can in general induce tal local strains are calculated using the following transformations
membrane locking.
0
eij ¼ 0 ~ekl ð0 Li  0 gk Þð0 Lj  0 gl Þ;
From the assumed Green-Lagrange membrane strains in Eq.
(15), we derive the assumed incremental linear membrane strain 0  ij
g ¼ 0 g~ kl ð0 Li  0 gk Þð0 Lj  0 gl Þ with 0 gi  0 g j ¼ dij : ð23Þ
m
0 eij in Eq. (20b)

1 2.5. Stiffness matrix and internal force vector

0~
em
rr ¼ ð1  2t aA þ s þ 2t aA  s2 Þ0 emðAÞ
rr
2
1 Using the standard total Lagrangian formulation [4,18,31], the
þ ð1  2t aB  s þ 2t aB  s2 Þ0 emðBÞ
rr tangent stiffness matrix (t Ke ) and internal force vector (t0 F e ) of
2
þ aC ð1 þ s Þ0 ess þ aD ð1 þ s2 Þ0 emðDÞ
t 2 mðCÞ t the MITC4+ shell element are obtained
ss

þ t aE ð1 þ s2 Þ0 ers
mðEÞ
; ð21aÞ Z Z
t
Ke ¼  ijkl Bkl d V þ
BTij C
0 t 0
ð24aÞ
0 S ij Nij d V;
0~
em ¼ t aA ð1 þ r 2 Þ0 err þ t aB ð1 þ r2 Þ0 err
mðAÞ mðBÞ 0V 0V
ss
1 Z
þ ð1  2t aC þ r þ 2t aC  r2 Þ0 emðCÞ
BTij t0 S ij d V;
0
2 ss t
0 Fe ¼ ð24bÞ
0V
1
þ ð1  2t aD  r þ 2t aD  r 2 Þ0 emðDÞ
ss þ t aE ð1 þ r 2 Þ0 emðEÞ
rs ; ð21bÞ  ijkl
2 in which 0 V is the volume of the shell element at time 0, and C
and t0 S ij denote, respectively, the material law tensor and the second
1 1
0~
em
rs ¼ ðr þ 4t aA  rsÞ0 emðAÞ
rr þ ðr þ 4t aB  rsÞ0 emðBÞ
rr Piola-Kirchhoff stress measured in the local Cartesian coordinate
4 4
system.
1 1
þ ðs þ 4t aC  rsÞ0 emðCÞ
ss þ ðs þ 4t aD  rsÞ0 essmðDÞ
In Eq. (24), the strain-displacement matrices, Bij and Nij , are
4 4
defined by
þ ð1 þ t aE  rsÞ0 emðEÞ
rs ; ð21cÞ
0
eij  ij ¼ dUTe Nij Ue ;
¼ Bij Ue ; d0 g ð25Þ
with the same geometric coefficients as in Eq. (15e) and the tying
positions ðAÞ, ðBÞ, ðCÞ, ðDÞ and ðEÞ in Fig. 4. where Ue is the incremental nodal displacement vector
We employ the same assumed strain field for the incremental  T
nonlinear membrane strain 0 gm Ue ¼ UT1 UT2 UT3 UT4 with Ui ¼ ½ ui vi wi ai bi T :
ij , and hence the incremental in-
plane strain components are

0~ ¼ 0 ~em 2 b2
ij þ f 0 eij þ f 0 eij and
b1
eij
P Pmax
0 ~ ij
g ¼ 0 g~ mij þ f0 gb1 2
ij þ f 0 gij with i; j ¼ 1; 2: ð22Þ
b2

x104
4

3.5

uC uB
2.5

Load 2 wD wA
( P)
z
1.5

uB uC x y
1

0.5 reference
12x12 MITC4
12x12 MITC4+
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Displacements
P Pmax
Fig. 12. Load-displacement curves for the pull-out of the free cylindrical shell
structure. Fig. 13. Deformed shape for the pull-out of the free cylindrical shell structure.
8 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14

ge
β L

ed
ee
Fr
D
B

ge
A

ed
ee
Fr
M
C

R
θ

z
x y
E D (a)
L1
L4 L2

L3
L3

L2 L4
L1
B A C
(b) (c)

Fig. 14. Bending of a cylindrical shell structure (R ¼ 10:0, h ¼ 30 , L ¼ 20:0, thickness a, E ¼ 2:1  106 and m ¼ 0:0). (a) Problem description (12  12 uniform mesh). (b)
Distorted mesh pattern (4  4 mesh). (c) Distorted mesh pattern used (12  12 mesh).

In the nonlinear solution procedure, the nodal geometry is is only slightly higher than the cost of the classical MITC4 shell
updated using Eq. (4b), and the vectors t Vi1 , t Vi2 and t Vin at node i element due to the use of the assumed covariant membrane
are updated using the following equations: strains.
tþDt tþDt tþDt
Vin ¼ Q t Vin ; Vi1 ¼ Q t Vi1 ; Vi2 ¼ Q t Vi2 ; ð26Þ
with 3. Numerical examples
0 1
q20 þ q21  12 q1 q2  q0 q3 q3 q1 þ q0 q2 In this section, several numerical examples are solved to
B C
B C demonstrate the performance of the MITC4+ shell element in geo-
Q ¼ 2B q1 q2 þ q0 q3 q20 þ q22  1
q2 q3  q0 q1 C;
@ 2 A metric nonlinear analysis. The results are compared with those
q3 q1  q0 q2 q2 q3 þ q0 q1 q20 þ q23  12 obtained using of the classical MITC4 shell element. The reference
solutions are analytical data or are obtained using a fine uniform
    mesh of the MITC9 shell element, which is known to satisfy the
hi hi hi
q0 ¼ cos ; ½ q1 q2 q3 T ¼ sin ; hi ¼ khi k; ellipticity and consistency conditions and to show good
2 hi 2
convergence behavior in both linear and nonlinear analyses
in which a quaternion representation of large rotations is utilized [4–8,17–20].
[32]. We show in the example solutions that both the MITC4 and
In the finite element solutions, we use 2  2  2 Gauss integra- MITC4+ elements work well when uniform meshes are used and
tion over the element volume for the 4-node shell elements due to the specific physical problem the large displacements of
considered. The computational cost of the MITC4+ shell element the meshes do not induce locking, but in contrast to the MITC4
 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14 9

x104 x104
4 4
(a) (a)
3.6 3.6

3.2 3.2

2.8 2.8

2.4 2.4
Load Load
( M 0) 2 ( M 0) 2

1.6 uA wA 1.6 uA wA
1.2 1.2

0.8 0.8
reference reference
0.4 12x12 MITC4 0.4 12x12 MITC4
12x12 MITC4+ 12x12 MITC4+
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
x104 x104
4 4
(b) (b)
3.6 3.6

3.2 3.2

2.8 2.8

2.4 2.4
Load Load
( M 0) 2 2
( M 0)
1.6 uA wA 1.6 uA wA
1.2 1.2

0.8 0.8
reference reference
0.4 12x12 MITC4 0.4 12x12 MITC4
12x12 MITC4+ 12x12 MITC4+
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
x104 x104
4 4
(c) (c)
3.6 3.6

3.2 3.2

2.8 2.8

2.4 2.4
Load Load
( M 0) 2 2
( M 0)
1.6 uA wA 1.6 uA wA
1.2 1.2

0.8 0.8
reference reference
0.4 12x12 MITC4 0.4 12x12 MITC4
12x12 MITC4+ 12x12 MITC4+
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Displacements Displacements

Fig. 15. Load-displacement curves for the bending of the cylindrical shell structure Fig. 16. Load-displacement curves for the bending of the cylindrical shell structure
with the uniform mesh. (a) a=R ¼ 1=100. (b) a=R ¼ 1=1000. (c) a=R ¼ 1=10; 000. with the distorted mesh. (a) a=R ¼ 1=100. (b) a=R ¼ 1=1000. (c) a=R ¼ 1=10; 000.
10 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14

D C
P P

φ0

β
z
x y
R

A B
P P

(a)
D C
L1
L4 L2

L3
L3

L2 L4
L1
A B
(b) (c)

Fig. 17. Hemispherical shell problem (R ¼ 10:0, u0 ¼ 18 , thickness a ¼ 0:04, E ¼ 6:825  107 and m ¼ 0:3). (a) Problem description (12  12 uniform mesh). (b) Distorted
mesh pattern (4  4 mesh). (c) Distorted mesh pattern applied (12  12 mesh).

shell element, the MITC4+ element also works well when an ini- The cantilever beam should bend into a complete circle at the
tially distorted mesh is used for such problem solutions, see Sec- applied tip moment M max ¼ 2pM 0 .
tions 3.1–3.4. Fig. 6 shows the load-displacement curves of the MITC4 and
We also show the important point that the MITC4+ element is MITC4+ shell elements. The solutions using both elements agree
more effective than the MITC4 element in response solutions when well with the reference and analytic solutions. Fig. 7 shows the
due to the physical nature of the shell problem an initially uniform deformed shapes at successive load levels P=Pmax ¼ 0:25 and 1.0
mesh in the large displacement response can induce locking. In this for the shearing load case and M=Mmax ¼ 0:25, 0.5 and 1.0 for the
case, the MITC4 element locks in membrane actions whereas the moment load case.
MITC4+ element continues to work well, see Sections 3.5–3.7.
3.2. Slit annular plate problem
3.1. Cantilever problem
We next consider the slit annular plate problem shown in Fig. 8
We consider the cantilever bending problem in Fig. 5 [11– [12,13,15,34]. The shearing force P is applied at one end of the slit
13,33]. The cantilever fully clamped at one end is subjected to while the other end is fully clamped. We use 3  24 and 5  40
either a shearing force P or bending moment M at the free tip. meshes for the MITC4 and MITC4 + shell elements. The maximum
The cantilever is modeled with a 16  1 mesh for the MITC4 and load per unit length P max =ðRo  Ri Þ ¼ 0:8 is considered. The refer-
MITC4 + shell elements. ence solution is obtained using a 10  80 mesh of MITC9 shell ele-
For the shearing load case, the reference solution is obtained ments. Fig. 9 shows the load-displacement curves. The solution
using a 32  1 mesh of MITC9 shell elements. We consider the obtained using the MITC4+ shell element is slightly better than
3
maximum load of P max ¼ 4P 0 with P0 ¼ EI=L and I ¼ ba =12 . the solution using the MITC4 shell element. The final deformed
For the moment load case, the cantilever develops to form a cir- shape of the structure calculated using the MITC4+ shell element
3 is presented in Fig. 10.
cular arc of radius R ¼ EI=M with I ¼ ba =12. Using this formula,
the following analytical tip displacements are obtained [12,13]
  3.3. Pull-out of a free cylindrical shell
utip M 0 M wtip M 0 M EI
¼ sin  1; ¼ 1  cos ; M0 ¼ : ð27Þ
L M M0 L M M0 L
We consider a pull-out of the free cylindrical shell structure
shown in Fig. 11 [12,13,34]. The shell structure is subjected to a
 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14 11

(a) 400

350

300

250

vB uA
Load 200
( P)

150

100

50 reference
8x8 MITC4
8x8 MITC4+
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

(b) 400

350

300

250

vB uA
Load 200
( P)

150

100

50 reference
12x12 MITC4
12x12 MITC4+
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Displacements

Fig. 19. Load-displacement curves for the hemispherical shell problem with the
Fig. 18. Load-displacement curves for the hemispherical shell problem with the
distorted mesh shown in Fig. 8(c). (a) 8  8 mesh. (b) 12  12 mesh.
uniform mesh shown in Fig. 8(a). (a) 8  8 mesh. (b) 12  12 mesh.

pair of pull-out loads (P) at its center. Due to symmetry, only one-
eighth of the structure corresponding to the shaded region ABCD in
Fig. 11 is modeled using a 12  12 mesh of the 4-node shell ele-
ments. We use the following boundary conditions: w ¼ b ¼ 0 along P Pmax
BC, u ¼ b ¼ 0 along AD, and v ¼ a ¼ 0 along AB. The analysis is per-
formed up to P max ¼ 4  104 . The reference solutions are obtained
using a 32  32 mesh of MITC9 shell elements. Fig. 12 shows the
P Pmax
resulting load-displacement curves. The MITC4 and MITC4+ shell
elements perform very well. Fig. 13 presents the final deformed
shape of the structure obtained using the MITC4+ shell element.

3.4. Bending of a cylindrical shell structure

We solve the bending problem of a cylindrical shell structure

P Pmax
shown in Fig. 14(a) [11,16–18]. The structure is subjected to uni- z
form bending moment M along BC. Three thickness to radius ratios, x y P Pmax
a=R ¼ 1=100, a=R ¼ 1=1000 and a=R ¼ 1=10; 000, are considered.
The applied moment varies with the thickness a considered Fig. 20. Deformed shape of the hemispherical shell (12  12 uniform mesh used).
12 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14

z x10-2
4
x y b (a)
reference
4x24 MITC4
3.5 4x24 MITC4+

2.5
L
Out-of-plane P
Load 2
( P)
In-plane P
A
1.5 wA uA
Fig. 21. Twisted cantilever beam problems (4  24 mesh, L ¼ 12:0, b ¼ 1:1,
thickness a ¼ 0:0032, E ¼ 2:9  107 and m ¼ 0:22). 1

according to M ¼ M0 a3 . A fully clamped boundary condition is 0.5

applied, u ¼ v ¼ w ¼ a ¼ b ¼ 0 along DE. For each thickness, we
consider the load level up to ðM 0 Þmax ¼ 4:0  104 . 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
In addition to the uniform mesh in Fig. 14(a), we also consider
the distorted mesh pattern shown in Fig. 14(b). For an N  N ele- x10-2
4
ment mesh, a pair of edges are discretized in the following ratio: (b) reference
L1 : L2 :L3 : . . . LN = 1: 2: 3: . . . N. The distorted mesh is shown in 4x24 MITC4
Fig. 14(c). For the 4-node shell elements a 12  12 mesh is used. 3.5 4x24 MITC4+
A 32  32 mesh of MITC9 shell elements is employed to obtain
the reference solution.
3
Fig. 15 shows the load-displacement curves for the uniform
mesh, where the solutions obtained using the MITC4 and MITC4+
shell elements agree well with the reference solution. Fig. 16 2.5
shows the load-displacement curves when the distorted mesh is
used. As the shell thickness decreases, the solutions obtained using Load 2
the MITC4 shell element depart from the reference solution. How- ( P)
ever, using the MITC4+ shell element good response predictions
1.5 uA wA
are always obtained.

3.5. Hemispherical shell problem 1

We solve the hemispherical shell problem shown in Fig. 17(a) 0.5

[13–15,17,18,34]. The hemispherical shell with an 18 cutout at
its pole is subjected to alternating radial point forces (P) at its
0
equator. In this bending problem, the shell structure undergoes 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
almost inextensional deformations and thus we test whether Displacements
membrane locking occurs. Due to symmetry, only one quarter of
the structure corresponding to the shaded region ABCD in Fig. 17 Fig. 22. Load-displacement curves for the twisted cantilever beam problem. (a)
(a) is modeled using uniform meshes of 8  8 and 12  12 Case of the in-plane load. (b) Case of the out-of-plane load.
4-node shell elements. We use the following boundary conditions:
u ¼ b ¼ 0 along BC, v ¼ b ¼ 0 along AD, and w ¼ 0 at A. The max-
imum load of P max ¼ 400 is considered.
In addition to the uniform mesh in Fig. 17(a), we consider the 3.6. Twisted cantilever beam problems
distorted mesh pattern shown in Fig. 17(b) in which we use an
N  N element mesh, each edge is discretized in the following We consider the twisted cantilever beam problems shown in
ratio: L1 : L2 : L3 : . . . LN = 1: 2: 3: . . . N. The distorted mesh in one Fig. 21 [26,34,35]. The initially twisted beam is fully clamped at
quarter of the hemisphere is shown in Fig. 17(c). To obtain the ref- one end and is loaded by a point load P at the center of the free
erence solution, a 32  32 uniform mesh of MITC9 shell elements is tip. Two load cases are considered: an in-plane and an
employed. out-of-plane load as shown in Fig. 21. We use a 4  24 mesh of
Figs. 18 and 19 present the load-displacement curves for the the 4-node elements while an 8  48 mesh of MITC9 shell ele-
uniform and distorted meshes, respectively. As the mesh is refined, ments is used for the reference solutions. The maximum load level
the solutions obtained using the MITC4+ shell element converge to is Pmax ¼ 4  102 for both load cases.
the reference solution more rapidly than those obtained with the Fig. 22 gives the load-displacement curves for both the in-plane
MITC4 shell element. For the distorted mesh cases, the MITC4 shell and out-of-plane loads. No severe locking is present for the in-
element gives a response with a large error from the reference plane load case, where both 4-node shell elements perform well.
solution. However, the MITC4+ shell element still shows a good When the out-of-plane load is applied, the response predicted
behavior. Fig. 20 gives the final deformed shape of the hemispher- using the MITC4 shell element deviates significantly from the ref-
ical shell calculated using the MITC4+ shell element. erence solution due to membrane locking. However, the MITC4+
 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14 13

12 elements
b

8 elements
z
x y

A P

x
R1 y
θ1

θ2 R2
A
Fig. 24. Hook problem (4  20 mesh, R1 ¼ 14, h1 ¼ 60 , R2 ¼ 46, h2 ¼ 150 , b ¼ 20,
thickness a ¼ 0:02, E ¼ 3:3  103 and m ¼ 0:3).

x10-4
1
reference
4x20 MITC4
0.9 4x20 MITC4+

0.8

0.7

0.6
Fig. 23. Deformed shapes of the cantilever beam. (a) Case of the in-plane load. (b)
Case of the out-of-plane load. Load 0.5
( P)
0.4
uA wA
0.3
shell element shows a good predictive capability. The final
deformed shapes of the cantilever beam obtained using the
0.2
MITC4+ shell element are presented in Fig. 23.
0.1

3.7. Hook problem

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Finally, we consider the hook problem shown in Fig. 24, referred
Displacements
to in linear analysis as the Raasch challenge, see Ref. [36]. The
structure is fully clamped at one end and is loaded by a shear load Fig. 25. Load-displacement curves for the hook problem.
P applied as a uniformly distributed traction at the free tip. For the
solution, we use a 4  20 mesh with the MITC4 and MITC4+ shell
elements and an 8  40 mesh of MITC9 shell elements to obtain
the reference solution. The load is applied up to more accurate solution than using the MITC4 shell element. The
P max ¼ 1:0  104 . Fig. 25 shows the resulting load-displacement final deformed shape of the hook obtained using the MITC4+ shell
curves. Using the MITC4+ shell element produces a significantly element is shown in Fig. 26.
14 Y. Ko et al. / Computers and Structures 185 (2017) 1–14

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