A higher-order facet quadrilateral composite shell element

Abstract

A C⁰ finite element formulation of flat faceted element based on a higher-order displacement model is presented for the analysis of general, thin-to-thick, fibre reinforced composite laminated plates and shells. This theory incorporates a realistic non-linear variation of displacements through the shell thickness, and eliminates the use of shear correction coefficients. The discrete element chosen is a nine-noded quadrilateral with five and nine degrees of freedom per node. A comparison of results is also made with the 2-D thin classical and 3-D exact analytical results, and finite element solutions with 9-noded first-order element.