Static, free vibration and thermal analysis of composite plates and shells using a flat triangular shell element (Q1912040)

Finite element static, free vibration and thermal analysis of thin laminated plates and shells using a three-noded triangular flat shell element is presented. The flat shell element is a combination of the discrete Kirchhoff theory plate bending element and a membrane element derived from the linear strain triangular element with a total of 18 degrees of freedom (3 translations and 3 rotations per node). The results are presented for (i) static analysis of (a) simply supported square plates under doubly sinusoidal load and uniformly distributed load, (b) simply supported spherical shells under a uniformly distributed load; (ii) free vibration analysis of (a) square cantilever plates, (b) skew cantilever plates, and (c) simply supported spherical shells; (iii) thermal deformation analysis of (a) simply supported square plates, (b) simply supported-clamped square plate, and (c) simply supported spherical shells.