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Finite element corotational formulation for geometric nonlinear analysis of thin shells with large rotation and small

strain
YANG JinSong and XIA PinQi
Citation: SCIENCE CHINA Technological Sciences 55, 3142 (2012); doi: 10.1007/s11431-012-4995-2
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Technological Sciences
• RESEARCH PAPER • November 2012 Vol.55 No.11: 3142–3152
doi: 10.1007/s11431-012-4995-2

Finite element corotational formulation for geometric nonlinear


analysis of thin shells with large rotation and small strain
YANG JinSong & XIA PinQi*
College of Aerospace Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

Received September 1, 2011; accepted April 11, 2012; published online August 6, 2012

Based on the consistent symmetrizable equilibrated (CSE) corotational formulation, a linear triangular flat thin shell element
with 3 nodes and 18° of freedom, constructed by combination of the optimal membrane element and discrete Kirchhoff trian-
gle (DKT) bending plate element, was extended to the geometric nonlinear analysis of thin shells with large rotation and small
strain. Through derivation of the consistent tangent stiffness matrix and internal force vector, the corotational nonlinear finite
element equations were established. The nonlinear equations were solved by using the Newton-Raphson iteration algorithm
combined with an automatic load controlled technology. Three typical case studies, i.e., the slit annular thin plate, top opened
hemispherical shell and cylindrical shell, validated the accuracy of the formulation established in this paper.

thin shell, geometric nonlinearity, corotational formulation, finite element

Citation: Yang J S, Xia P Q. Finite element corotational formulation for geometric nonlinear analysis of thin shells with large rotation and small strain. Sci
China Tech Sci, 2012, 55: 31423152, doi: 10.1007/s11431-012-4995-2

1 Introduction ner [2] and Belytschko et al. [3], and has received great re-
search interest for the past 20 years. Rankin and Brogan [4]
presented a concept of an element independent CR formula-
Thin shell structures with their excellent mechanical per-
tion (EICR). Nour-Omid and Rankin [5, 6] introduced a
formance have been widely used in various fields of struc-
rotation projector matrix into the formulation to further im-
tural engineering. When the structure is loaded, the geomet-
prove the process of EICR formulation. Crisfield et al. [7, 8]
ric non-linear phenomena of large displacement and large
discussed in detail a unified approach for geometric nonlin-
rotation often occur in the structure. It is still an important
ear CR formulation of various finite elements. Pacoste and
research issue to develop an efficient and practical
Battini [9–12] followed the main idea of the EICR formula-
non-linear finite element analysis method for the structure.
tion to describe the total rotation of node by using the rota-
According to the description method for element motion,
tional pseudo-vector, discussed the choice of the local coor-
the existing geometric nonlinear finite element method can
dinate system and linear triangular shell element, and pre-
be divided into three categories [1]: total Lagrangian (TL)
sented the measures to improve computational efficiency. Cai
formulation, updated Lagrangian (UL) formulation and co-
et al. [13] established a solving process for plane element
rotational (CR) formulation.
with large rotation by using the CR formulation. Li et al.
The CR formulation, as an another efficient method for
[14] constructed a new 9-node quadrilateral curved shell
derivation of geometric nonlinear finite element with large
element by utilizing the additive rotational nodal variables.
rotation and small strain, was initially presented by Wemp-
An et al. [15] applied the CR formulation of the triangular
flat shell element to the nonlinear aeroelastic analysis of
*Corresponding author (email: xiapq@nuaa.edu.cn)

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Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11 3143

AGARD 445.6 wing and obtained a better calculation result. structures with large rotation and small strain. The con-
Felippa and Haugen [16, 17] summarized the existing EICR sistent tangent stiffness matrix and the internal force vector
formulations and presented a unified theoretical framework in the global coordinate system were derived to establish the
of the CR formulation with small strain, in which the con- equations of geometric nonlinear corotational finite element.
sistent symmetrizable equilibrated (CSE) CR formulation The nonlinear equations were solved by using the New-
including the translational projection matrix developed by ton-Raphson algorithm combined with automatic load con-
Haugen could be simplified to other CR formulations, with trol technology. Three typical case studies of numerical
clear physical meaning, standard formulation process, and analysis, i.e., the slit annular thin plate, top opened hemi-
good numerical stability. Recently, based on the CSE CR spherical shell and cylindrical shell, validated the accuracy
formulation, Almeida and Awruch [18] successfully con- of the formulation established in this paper.
structed a 3-node flat shell element for nonlinear dynamic
analysis of the ply composite shell structure. 2 Corotational formulation
The main idea of the CR formulation is to introduce a lo-
cal coordinate system translating and rotating continuously 2.1 Configurations and coordinate systems
following element into each element, and to decompose the
motion of an element into two parts [6, 7–9, 11, 14–18]: the In the CR formulation, in terms of the different conditions
rigid body translation and rotation of element, and the pure before and after deformation of element, three element con-
elastic deformational motion based on the local coordinate figurations are defined: the initial configuration C 0 , coro-
system. If the pure elastic deformation meets the small tated configuration C R , and deformed configuration C D ,
strain-small displacement relationship, then the stiffness
matrix and internal force vector of element may be estab- as shown in Figure 1. C R is an intermediate configuration
lished in the local coordinate system by using the linear between C 0 and C D . The initial configuration C 0 cor-
finite element theory. Consequently, the biggest advantage responds to the initial condition of element without any mo-
of the CR formulation is to apply the existing excellent per- tion. The corotated configuration C R refers to the config-
formance of the linear element to nonlinear analysis. In ad- uration of element after rigid body translation and rigid
dition, for the geometric nonlinear analysis, the traditional
body rotation. The deformed configuration C D refers to
Total or Updated Lagrangian formulation starts with the
nonlinear strain-displacement relationship of a specific ele- the configuration of element after elastic deformation. To
ment then derives the tangent stiffness matrix, and the geo- describe the motion of element, two kinds of coordinate
metric nonlinearity is included in the derivation of an ele- systems are defined: the global coordinate system G and the
ment from the beginning to the end. The CR formulation local coordinate system of element. The local coordinate
fully contains the geometric nonlinearity caused by the large system of element includes the initial coordinate system and
rigid body motion in the transformation matrix of the linear the corotated coordinate system of the element. The initial
stiffness matrix and internal force vector from the local co- coordinate system of the element in the initial configuration
ordinate system to the global coordinate system. There- is denoted by E0. The corotated coordinate system of the
fore, compared with the Lagrangian method, another ad- element in the corotated configuration and deformed con-
vantage of CR formulation is that for the different elements figuration is denoted by E. In addition, to describe the rota-
with the same geometry and node degree of freedom, the tion of element node, the three base vectors of node are de-
transformation matrix from the local to global coordinate fined, and denoted by N0, NR and N in the initial configura-
systems is exactly the same. This is to say that the estab- tion, corotated configuration and deformed configuration,
lishing process of the CR finite element equations is unre- respectively. Superscripts 0 and R correspond to the varia-
lated to the selection of linear element in the local coordi- bles of a point in the initial configuration and corotated con-
nate system. Hence, the CR formulation is element inde- figuration, respectively. Nodes without superscripts corre-
pendent. spond to the variables in the deformed configuration. Sub-
The triangular flat shell element has the advantages of scripts represent the starting and ending points of the vector.
simple formulation, easy geometric description, convenient The subscript is omitted when the starting and ending points
combination with other elements as well as accurate de- are the same or the starting point is at the original point of
scription of the rigid body motion [19]. In this paper, based the global coordinate system. The above bar “–” represents
on the consistent symmetrizable equilibrated (CSE) corota- the variable in the local coordinate system of the element.
tional formulation, a linear triangular flat thin shell element The above bar “–” is omitted for the variable in the global
with 3 nodes and 18° of freedom was constructed by com- coordinate system. It is noted that all variables shown in
bination of the optimal membrane element (OPT) [20] with Figure 1 are in the global coordinate system.
rotational degree of freedom and the discrete Kirchhoff The origin point of element initial coordinate system E0
plate bending element (DKT) [21]. The element was ex- is selected at the mass center C0 of the triangle element. The
tended to the geometric nonlinear analysis of thin shell axis e10 is parallel to the side 1–2 of the element, and the

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3144 Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11

Figure 1 Element kinematics and coordinate systems of CR formulation.

axis e30 is perpendicular to the plane determined by the In addition, the three base vectors of the node are or-
thogonal, fixed at the node, translate and rotate with the
three nodes of the element. The transformation matrix of the
node. The direction of the three base vectors N0 of the node
element initial coordinate system from the local to global
coordinate systems can be obtained as follows: in the initial configuration C 0 can be arbitrarily selected.
For convenience, the direction of N0 is selected to be paral-
0
x21 0
x21  x31
0
lel to the axis of the global coordinate system G in this pa-
e10  , e30  , e20  e30  e10 ,
0
x21 0
x21  x31
0
(1) per. The direction of NR in the corotated configuration C R
T  e
T 0
e 0
e  ,
0 is determined by the rigid body rotation of the element, and
0 1 2 3
the direction of N in the deformed configuration C D is
where x21 0
 x20  x10 , xa0 (a  1, 2,3) is the location vector determined by the total rotation of the node.
in the global coordinate system of element node a in the
initial configuration C 0 . After motion of the element start- 2.2 Corotational kinematics of element
ing from the initial configuration, there are several selection
As shown in Figure 1, the motion process of the element
methods [11] of axis directions for the element corotated
coordinate system E in the corotated and deformed config- from the initial to the deformed configuration i.e. C 0  C R
urations. In this paper, the establishing method for the coor- needs two steps in terms of the CR formulation. The first
dinate system E is similar to establishing E0. The differ- step is the C 0  C R process, i.e., the element is from the
ence is that establishing E is in terms of the location vector initial to the corotated configuration through rigid body mo-
xa(a=1,2,3) in the global coordinate system of element node tion. The rigid translation is described by the displacement
a in the deformed configuration C D . The transformation uC of point C in the global coordinate system. The rigid
matrix of the element corotated system from the local to rotation is expressed by the orthogonal rotation matrix R0.
According to the definition in the previous section, using
global coordinate systems is obtained as T T  [e1 e2 e3 ] .
the calculation method [22] for continuous rotation can get
Based on the above definitions, the transformation relation-
the formula R0=TTT0. The second step is the C R  C D
ships between the vectors in the local coordinate system E0,
process, i.e., the pure elastic deformation of element in the
E of the element and the vectors in the global coordinate
corotated coordinate system, including the elastic transla-
system G are
tion and elastic rotation. The elastic translation of node in
xC0 0 a  T0 xC0 0 a  T0 ( xa0  xC0 0 ), the local coordinate system is denoted by uda (a  1, 2,3) .
(2)
xCa  TxCa  T ( xa  xC ), The elastic rotation of node in the local coordinate system is
denoted by the rotational matrix Rda (a  1, 2,3). Through
 
3 3
where xC0  1
3 a 1
xa0 and xC  1
3 a 1
xa . the above two steps, the total motion of element is decom-

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Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11 3145

posed into the rigid body motion and the pure elastic de- the unit vector n, i.e. θ   n  { x  y  z }T . The rotation
formation. In terms of the geometric vector operation, uda
matrix R is a nonlinear function of the rotational pseu-
and Rda are determined as follows. do-vector .
In the global coordinate system, the translation of node a The computational method [16, 17] for extracting the ro-
is expressed by vector ua. According to the vector operation tational pseudo-vector  from the rotational matrix R is
relationship, the elastic translation of node a can be ex-
pressed by  R32  R23 

 
θ n   R13  R31  , (8)
uda  xa  xaR  ua  xa0  xC0 0  uC  xCRa . (3) 2sin   
 R21  R12 
The rotation of node a in the global coordinate system where Rij (i, j  1, 2,3) are the elements of the rotational
is described by the rotational matrix Ra. In the C 0  C R matrix R. In actual computation,  sin   1 when  is
process, the nodal rotation is the same as the rigid body ro-
very small.
tation R0 of the element. The subsequent elastic rotation is
Using eq. (8) and extracting the rotational pseudo-vector
expressed by Rda. In terms of the transformation relationship
of three base vectors of node in Figure 1 and the calculation θda from the rotational matrix Rda can get the elastic dis-
method for continuous rotation, the formula Ra  Rda R0 is placement vector of node a in the corotated coordinate sys-
obtained, then tem of the element.

 
T
Rda  Ra R0T . (4) pda  udTa θdTa . (9)

By using the transformation relationship between the lo- The elastic displacement vector of the element in the local
cal and global coordinate systems and transforming uda and
 
T
coordinate system is expressed by pd  pd1
T
pdT2 T
pd3 .
Rda obtained by formulas (3) and (4) into the corotated co-
ordinate system of element, the elastic displacement in the It is emphasized that in the process of solving nonlinear
local coordinate system can be obtained by finite element equations by using the iterative algorithms,
the iterative incremental solutions represent the superimpo-
uda  Tuda  T (ua  xa0  uC  xC0 0 )  xC00 a , (5) sition of an additional infinitesimal three-dimensional in-
cremental rotation  ωda on the basis of finite rotation ex-
Rda  TRdaT T  TRaT0T . (6) pressed by the rotational pseudo-vector θda of the node to
In the derivation of eq. (5), the formulas TxCRa  xCRa , form a compound rotation. In updating the rotational degree
of freedom of the node, the rotational pseudo-vector of the
T0 xC0 0 a  xC00 a , and xCRa  xC00 a are used, as well as the compound rotation cannot be computed directly by using
nature that the rigid body motion of element does not θda   ωda , because whether or not the 3D finite rotation,
change the local coordinates of the node in the correspond- there is no vector superposition [8, 16, 17] between the ro-
ing element coordinate system. tational pseudo-vectors, i.e., θda   ωda  θda   θda . In
In addition, the elastic translation uda of node a in the
order to realize the vector superposition of rotational degree
local coordinate system can be obtained by comparing the of freedom of the node in the finite element solution process,
nodal local coordinates in the corotated configuration with it needs firstly to transform  ωda into  θda to express
the nodal local coordinates in the deformed configuration.
the same incremental rotation with the superposition char-
uda  xCa  xC00 a , (7) acteristic. The transformation relationship is

where xCa  TxCa  T (ua  xa0  uC  xC0 0 ) .  θda  H (θda ) ωda ,


(10)
H (θda )  I 3  12 spin(θda )   spin(θda ) 2 ,
2.3 Nodal degrees of freedom
where I3 is a 3×3 identity matrix and spin() is the spinor
In the process of computation, two kinds of methods for matrix operator of vector
describing the finite rotations [22] need to be used: the rota-
tion matrix R and the rotational pseudo-vector . The phys-  0  daz  day 
 
ical meaning of the rotational pseudo-vector  is the angle spin(θda )    daz 0  dax  , (11)
    
2 2 2
rotating about the axis determined by   day  dax 0 
x y z 

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3146 Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11

1 the variation of the total displacement vector d in the glob-


1   da cot   da 
1
2 2  al coordinate system and the variation of the elastic dis-
 placement vector  pd in the local coordinate system,
 d2a
1 1 2 1 1 where  d  { d1T  d 2T  d 3T }T .
   da  d4a  d6a  , (12)
12 720 30240 1209600 Solving the variation of eq. (5) can get the variation of
elastic translation displacement of node a in the local coor-
where for a small angle  da (  da  3 ), in order to avoid dinate system.
numerical instability, the expression of coefficient  can be
 uda   T (ua  xa0  uC  xC0 0 )  T ( ua   uC )
made as the power series expansion at  da  0 , and the first
several terms are taken in calculation.  spin( xa ) ωE   ua   uC . (16)
In addition, the rotation of node a in the global coordi-
In the above derivation, the following relations [17] are
nate system is still expressed by the rotational matrix Ra
used:
which is combined with the translation ua of the node in the
global coordinate system. The total displacement of the  T  Tspin( ωE ),
node in the global coordinate system is denoted by  spin( ωE ) xa  spin( xa ) ωE , (17)

 
T
d a  uaT RaT . (13) where  ωE is the rotational pseudo-vector of rotational
increment in the local coordinate system and represents the
In the solving process, the increment of total displace-
increment of rigid body rotation of the element. With the
ment vector of node a in the global coordinate system is
help of the total displacement vector in the local coordinate
expressed by  d a   uaT  ωaT  . At the end of each iter-
T
system, the variation of  ωE can be expressed by [17, 18]
ation, the increment of rotational pseudo-vector  ωa of
ωE  ω ωE  3
node a in the global coordinate system is used to update the  ωE  d   E   d   Gb d b ,
rotational matrix Ra of the node in the global coordinate d  u ω  b 1
(18)
system. The method is as follows.  ω ωE 
Gb   E   Gu,b 03  .
Ra ,new  R  ωa  Ra ,old ,  b ωb 
 u

sin a  Because the nodal position of the element is determined


R( ωa )  I 3  spin( ωa ) only by u, the term ωE ωb in eq. (18) is zero. Hence,
a
(14) the matrix Gu ,b at each node is
1  sin a / 2  
2

   spin( ωa ) ,
2

2  a / 2  0 0 x32  0 0 x13 


1   1  
a  ax2  ay2  az2 , Gu,1  0 0 y32  , Gu,2  0 0 y13  ,
2A   2A 
0  2l12A 0  0
2A
l12
0 
where for a small angle a ( a  3 ), in order to avoid (19)
0 0 x21 
numerical instability, the coefficients sin(a ) / a and 1 
Gu,3  0 0 y21  ,
2A 
1  sin a / 2  
2
0 0 0 
  can be made as the power series expan-
2  a / 2 
where A is the area of the element, xij  xi  x j ,
sion and the first several terms are taken in calculation.
yij  yi  y j (i, j  1, 2,3) . x and y are the nodal local
coordinates of the element. l1/2 is the length of element
2.4 Variation of displacement vector
side1-2. In eq. (16), expressing the increment of translation
In the global coordinate system, the tangent stiffness matrix  uC at the mass center of the element by using the varia-
KT of the element is defined as the change of the internal tion of the total translation displacement of the element
force vector f relative to the total displacement vector d. node in the local coordinate system can obtain
def f 3
 f  K T d , K T  . (15)  uda   (U ab  Sa Gu,b ) ub ,
d b 1
(20)
In order to obtain the tangent stiffness matrix KT of the  1
U ab    ab   I 3 , Sa  spin( xa ),
element, it is necessary to establish the relationship between  3

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Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11 3147

where ab is the Kronecker symbol. transformation matrix is Λ  HPTe and its sub-block ma-
Let  Rda be the variation of elastic rotational matrix of trix is
node a in the local coordinate system. After algebra calcula-
tion [16, 17], the equation can be obtained as follows: (U  Sa Gu,b )T 03 
Λab   ab . (27)
  H G
a b T  ab H a T 
 Rda   TRaT0T  T  RaT0T
 spin( ωa )  spin( ωE ) Rda It can be seen that the corotational transformation matrix
 is unrelated to the specific shape function matrix of the
 spin( ωa   ωE ) Rda . (21) element, but related to the parameters, such as the geometry
of element, the number of nodes and the number of degrees
Substituting the  Rda  spin( ωda ) Rda into eq. (21) can of freedom of nodes. For different elements with these same
get parameters, the corotational transformation matrix is com-
3 pletely the same.
 ωda   ωa   ωE    Gu,b  ab I 3   d b . (22)
b 1
2.5 Tangent stiffness matrix and internal force
In terms of above derivation, combining the variation of
elastic translation displacement with the variation of elastic In the corotated coordinate system of the element, the elas-
rotational pseudo-vector of node a in the local coordinate tic displacement vector pd of the element in the local co-
system can obtain the variation of elastic displacement vec- ordinate system is linked with the internal forces f
tor of node a. Its relation with the variation of the total dis-
through the material stiffness matrix K of the element,
placement vector of node a is [17, 18]
f  Kpd , (28)
3 U  Sa Gu,b 03 
 d da   Pab d b , Pab   ab , (23)
b 1  Gu,b  ab I 3  where

 
T
where Pab is a sub-block matrix of the projector matrix pd  ud1T θd1T ud2T θd2T ud3T θd3T ,
(29)
f  n 
T
P and contains the translational projector matrix and the T
m1T n2T m2T n3T m3T ,
1
rotational projector matrix. Through the projector matrix
P , by using the pure geometry method, the variation of where na and ma are the internal forces and internal
pure elastic displacement vector can be extracted from the moments at node a, respectively. In the local coordinate
variation of displacement vector in the global coordinate system, eq. (28) gives a linear equation. However, in the
system. For an element, global coordinate system, the internal forces and displace-
 d d  P d . (24) ment vectors of the node are nonlinear, because the trans-
formation matrix between the local and global coordinate
By transforming the  ωda into the  d d with the char- systems depends on the displacement itself [18].
The nodal internal force vectors of the element in the lo-
acteristic of superposition, the variation of elastic displace-
cal and global coordinate systems can be linked by equating
ment vector  pd which includes the  θda in the local
the virtual works of internal forces, i.e.,  d T f   pdT f . In
coordinate system can be obtained as follows:
terms of the relationship between  pd and d, the equa-
 pd  H  d d , (25) tion can be obtained as follows:

where H  diag  I3 H1 I3 H2 I3 H 3  is a matrix f  ΛT f  TeT P T H T f . (30)

composed of sub-block matrix H a  H (θda ) as in eq. (10). The consistent tangent stiffness matrix of the element can
be established by the definition of eq. (15). The variation of
Finally, through the corotational transformation matrix
the internal forces is
[18], the variation of elastic displacement vector  pd in
the local coordinate system is linked with the variation of  f   ΛT f  ΛT f . (31)
the total displacement vector d in the global coordinate
system: Substituting eq. (28) into the first term of the right-hand
side in eq. (31) can obtain
def
 pd  H  d d  HP d  HPTe d  Λ d , (26) ΛT f  ΛT K  pd  ΛT KΛ d  K M d , (32)

where Te  diag[T T T T T T ] . The corotational where KM is the material stiffness matrix in the global coor-

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3148 Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11

dinate system and is a component of the tangent stiffness Μ a  {  (θdTa ma ) I 3  θda maT  2ma θdTa 
matrix.
By the variation of corotational transformation matrix  1 (40)
  spin(θda ) 2 ma θdTa  spin(ma )}H (θda ),
in the second term of the right-hand side in eq. (31), the 2
geometric stiffness matrix KG composed of three compo- where the calculation formula of coefficient  is
nents can be obtained. The derivation is as follows:

 ΛT f  d2a  4 cos  da   da sin  da  4



4 d4a sin 2   da 
1

  TeT P T H T  TeT P T H T  TeT P T H T f  2 
  K GR  K GP  K GM   d  K G d . (33) 1 1 1 1
   d2a   d4a   d6a  . (41)
360 7560 201600 5987520
Here only the final expressions of the three components
KGR, KGP and KGM of the geometric stiffness matrix KG are To sum up, the tangent stiffness matrix and internal force
given. The detailed derivations can be found in refs. [16, 17]. vector of the element in the global coordinate system are
The rotational geometric stiffness matrix [17] KGR is ob-
K T  K M  K GR  K GP  K GM
tained by the change of internal force vector caused by the
rigid body rotation of the element in the global coordinate  
 TeT P T H T KHP  FnmG  G T FnT P  P T MP Te , (42)
system. Its expression is
f T P H f.
e
T T T

K GR  T FnmGTe ,
e
T
(34)
It can be seen from eq. (42) that the tangent stiffness ma-
where trix of the element in the global coordinate system is a
non-symmetric matrix. The assembled tangent stiffness ma-
G  Gu,1 03 Gu,2 03 Gu,3 03  , trices of structure is denoted by K. Nour-Omid and Rankin
[6] proved that in the Newton-Raphson algorithm, using the
Fnm  [spin(nP,1 )T spin(mP,1 )T (35)
1
T
 spin(nP,3 ) spin(mP,3 ) ] , T T symmetric part K sym  ( K  K T ) of K matrix for com-
2
putation can still ensure the quadratic convergence rate of
where nP, a and mP, a are the forces and moments after
the algorithm. Hence, the tangent stiffness matrix of struc-
projecting, respectively and obtained by computation of ture can be used for symmetrical treatment.
f P  P T H T f . Here, a nature of the projector matrix P is
used [6, 9, 17]: After projection to the deformed configura-
3 Linear triangular flat shell element
tion, the non-equilibrated internal force vector f of the
element in the corotated configuration becomes the equili- In the local coordinate system, the optimal (OPT) mem-
brated internal force vector f P . brane element [20] with normal rotational degree of free-
By the equilibrated projection geometric stiffness matrix dom and the discrete Kirchhoff triangle (DKT) triangular
KGP [17], the change of internal force vector and the change thin plate element [21] with excellent properties are com-
of projection matrix in the global coordinate system are bined to construct the linear triangular flat shell element
linked. Its expression is with 3 nodes and 18° of freedom. The detailed formulas can
be found in refs. [20, 21] and are not repeated here. It
K GP  TeT G T FnT PTe , (36)
should be point out that because the node of the element has
where the same local coordinates in the initial and corotated con-
figurations, the material stiffness matrix in the local coordi-
FnT  [spin(nP,1 )T 03 spin(nP,2 )T 03 spin(nP,3 )T 03 ]. (37) nate system can be established by using the local coordi-
nates of the element node in the initial configuration. In
The moment correction geometric stiffness matrix KGM addition, it should be emphasized that for other flat shell
[17] caused by the change of matrix H is elements with 3 nodes and 18° of freedom, it only needs to
K GM  TeT P T MPTe , (38) replace the material stiffness matrix K of the element in
eq. (28) .
where
M  diag 03 M1 03 M2 03 M 3  . (39) 4 Solution procedure of displacement

The sub-block matrix Μ a at node a is According to the tangent stiffness matrix and internal force

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Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11 3149

vector of the element obtained by eq. (42), assembling them curves at points A and B, as shown in Figure 3. The compu-
can obtain the tangent stiffness matrix and internal force tational results for the two kinds of meshing were in good
vector of the structure. By using the load controlled full agreement with the results using the number of meshes
Newton-Raphson algorithm, the solution formula for the 10×80 by Sze et al. [23]. When the load factor equals one,
(i+1)th iteration of the nth load step is the shape of the slit annular plate after deformation is shown
in Figure 4. In addition, by using the automatic load
D    K  
1
n
i 1 i
n
 n
L  Fi n , (43)

where Din1 is the increment of the structural displace-


ment to be solved. K in is the tangent stiffness matrix of
the structure. n is the load factor of the nth load step. L is the
total external load of the structure. Fi n is the internal force
vector of the structure. The iteration convergence criterion of
displacement vector increment is Din1 D1n  104 . In
this paper, an automatic load-controlled technology was
used for the actual computation. The maximum allowable Figure 2 The slit annular plate.
number of iterations imax is set in a single load step. For the
nth load step, if not convergence, then we reduce the load
increment factor and recalculate the load step. If conver-
gence and the number of convergence iteration is in, and
in  0.3imax , then, we increase the load increment factor in
the (n+1)th load step and go to the next load step computa-
tion. This technology can greatly improve the computational
efficiency.

5 Numerical examples

Sze et al. [23] selected the quadrilateral surface shell ele-


ment S4R in the nonlinear finite element solver ABAQUS,
and solved eight typical numerical examples in the nonline-
ar geometric finite element analysis of the thin shell struc-
ture by using the automatic load incremental algorithm. In
each example, dimensionless parameters were used. In this Figure 3 Load-vertical displacement curves for the slit annular plate.
paper, three examples i.e., the slit annular plate, top opened
hemispherical shell, and cylindrical shell opened at both
ends, were selected to compute for verifying the accuracy of
the method established in this paper by using a different
number of meshes for computation.

5.1 Slit annular plate

The slit annular plate is shown in Figure 2. The relevant


plate’s parameters included inner radius R1=6, outer radius
R2=10, thickness h=0.03, elastic modulus E=2.1×107 and
Poisson’s ratio =0. The slit plate was horizontally placed
and cut along the AB side. One end of the slit plate was
completely clamped and the other end was applied by a
uniformly distributed line load q, q=0.8 force/length. The
innermost point at the free end of the middle surface was
taken as point A, and the outermost point as point B. The
numbers of meshes were taken as 10×50×2 and 6×30×2,
respectively to compute the load-vertical displacement Figure 4 The deformed 10×50×2 meshes of slit at total load.

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3150 Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11

control algorithm in this paper, a total of 43 load steps and


the total number of 240 iterations were conducted. In the
Sze’s example, a total of 67 load steps and the total number
of 346 iterations were conducted.

5.2 Top opened hemispherical shell

A top opened hemispherical shell is shown in Figure 5. The


four concentrated forces P=400 are applied symmetrically
on the bottom of the hemispherical shell. There is a 18° cut
hole on the top. The cross-section is shown in Figure 6. The
relevant shell’s parameters are radius R=10, thickness
h=0.04, elastic modulus E=2.1×107 and Poisson’s ratio =0.
Using the symmetry of shell and loads, a quarter of the
structure was taken to compute. The numbers of meshes
were 16×16×2 and 12×12×2, respectively. The computa-
tional results of the radial displacements at points A and B,
and the results using the number of meshes 16×16 by Sze et
Figure 7 Load-radial displacement curves for hemispherical shell.
al. [23] are shown in Figure 7. Using the finer meshing 16×
16×2 gave the more consistent result and using the coarser
meshing 12×12×2 gave a slightly stiffen result. When the
load factor equals one, the meshing shape of the top opened
hemispherical shell after deformation is shown in Figure 8.
In this numerical example, the number of load steps was 18
and the total number of iterations was 95. The correspond-
ing numbers in Sze’s computation were 27 and 136, respec-
tively.

Figure 8 The deformed 16×16×2 meshes of hemispherical shell at total load.

5.3 Cylindrical shell

The cylindrical shell opened at both ends is shown in Fig-


ure 9. The relevant cylindrical shell’s parameters are length
L=10.35, radius R=4.953, thickness h=0.094, elastic modu-
Figure 5 The top opened hemispherical shell. lus E=10.5×106 and Poisson’s ratio =0.3125. Two concen-
trated forces P=40000 were applied in the opposite direc-
tions on the cylindrical surface at the central part and in the
radius direction. Using the symmetry of structure and forces,
one eighth of the structure was taken to compute. The num-
bers of meshes were 8×12×2 and 16×24×2, respectively.
The computational results of the radial displacements at
points A, B, and C are shown in Figure 10. The computa-
tional results for the two kinds of meshing were in good
agreement with the results using the number of meshes
16×24 by Sze et al. [23]. When the load factor equals one,
the meshing shape of the cylindrical shell after deformation
is shown in Figure 11. In this numerical example, the num-
Figure 6 The cross-section of hemispherical shell. ber of load steps was 14 and the total number of iterations

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Yang J S, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2012) Vol.55 No.11 3151

was 79. The corresponding numbers in Sze’s computation


were 18 and 94, respectively.

6 Conclusions

Based on the CSE corotational formulation, the tangent


stiffness matrix and internal force vector of the element for
thin shell structures and the corotational finite element
equations were established in this paper. The automatic load
controlled Newton-Raphson algorithm was used for solving
the nonlinear finite element equations. The finite element
corotational formulation established in this paper can be
used for nonlinear geometric analysis of thin shell structures
Figure 9 The cylindrical shell. with large rotation and small strain.
Three typical examples, i.e., the slit annular plate, top
opened hemispherical shell, and cylindrical shell opened at
both ends, were analyzed and their comparison with the
computational results by the nonlinear finite element solver
ABAQUS indicated that the method established in this pa-
per is not only accurate for computation but also has faster
speed for computation.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of


China (Grant No. 51075208), the Innovation Project for Graduate Stu-
dents of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. CX07B-162z), and the Fund for
Innovative and Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of NUAA (Grant No.
BCXJ07-01).

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