A robust nonlinear solid shell element based on a mixed variational formulation (Q2495563)

This paper is concerned with a geometrically nonlinear solid shell finite element formulation with a particular attention to locking treatment. More precisely, the variational formulation is based on the mixed Hu-Washizu functional. At the element level, this leads to the interpolations of displacement field, assumed stress and strain fields. The strains are additively decomposed into two parts approximated in two different function spaces. Three enhanced assumed strain parameters allow to prevent the Poisson thickness locking. Further, the authors approximate the transverse shear and thickness strains of Green-Lagrange type by the assumed natural strain interpolations. As a result, the static condensation on element level yields a simple low-order hexahedral solid shell element formulation with eight nodes and three displacement degrees per node. The most interesting advantages of the present solid shell element are a superior in-plane bending behavior within distorted meshes, and the robustness of the formulation with respect to the size of load step. Some numerical examples illustrate the applicability to geometrically and physically nonlinear problems including finite strains.