Large strain deformations of elastic shells. Constitutive modelling and finite element analysis (Q1808085)

In this fundamental paper, the author develops a theory of shells with seven degrees of freedom, which takes into account large displacements and large strains, including thickness change, and which avoids the explicit use of the rotation tensor. He incorporates a three-dimensional constitutive nonlinear elastic material law, whose parameters are determined such that Treolar's experiments with rubber-like materials under considerable deformation can be completely described. This material law is based on the decomposition of strain energy into an isochoric and a volumetric part. The theory is tested numerically by means of the finite element method with four or nine nodes per element, respectively. Also, the behavior of enhanced strain elements is examined and qualified to be rather poor. Finally, some instructive examples are worked out numerically for very large deformations, which could probably be analysed as well by means of the much simpler membrane theory.