A SIMPLE QUADRILATERAL SHELL ELEMENT Rictaro H. ‘The MacNeal Schwendler Corporati MacNrat 3» Los Angeles, CA SOMI, U.S.A. (Reccved 23 September 1916) [Abstract—The paper describes 2 new four-noded quar isoparametric princiles with modifications which relax ex eral shel element, called QUADS, which is based on cessive constraints. The modieatons include reduced arder inlegaton for shear terms, enforcement of curvature compuibiity, and the augmentation of transverse shear flexibly to account fora deficiency in the beading strain energy. Practical features are conversion to a nonplanar shape, coupling stifles Experimental resus are described which lust ermovection The subject of ths paper is a simple quadritateral shell clement called QUADS which has recently been released for public use ina proprietary version of NASTRAN.T It has been designed to combine the properties of several ‘older NASTRAN elements[I) into a single element, to augment their capabilities, and at the same time to're- ‘duce the cost of analysis. The objective was to produce an element which, while simple in formulation, would be reasonably accurate and would support a wide varity of applications. Although a discussion of the approach used in the formulation is undoubtedly of greater general interest, the following list of the major features in the released version ofthe QUADS element is mentioned for completeness and relevance to certain aspects of the formulation. * General warped quadrilateral shape. + Elastic coupling between bending and stretching + Transverse shear flexibility. + Anisotropic material properties. + Variable thickness. + Geometric stiffness (eg. for elastic stability analy- sis). * Nonstniform temperatnre distribution (fr thermal stress analysis). + Both consistent and lumped mass properties. ‘An important future development isthe introduction of nonlinear material properties (plasticity). This feature, and also the elastic coupling between bending and stretching, both require that membrane strains and bend. ing strains be formulated in a compatible manner. Tis is not the case with the older NASTRAN elements whose membrane nd bending propertics were developed in dependently using unrelated approaches. ‘An important general festure of NASTRAN which limits the choice of element formulation ia that, wit rare exceptions, the degrees of freedom consist ofthe three components of translation and the three components of rotation at disercte points. This feature excludes, for all practical purposes, elements which employ stains, ‘IMSCINASTRAN, developed by The MacNeal Schwender corporation, 4$8ee Ref, [4 for an account ofthe early development of shape tunctios. Standard means, in the present context, conforming is acement elements without reduced order integration or other us assed, clang between bending and stretching, mass properties, and geometic te the accuracy and economy esimed for the element. stresses, curvatures and higher order derivatives as de- sees of freedom, but it enhances the attractiveness of isoparametric displacement elements[2] which do not, in general, use such quantities as degrees of freedom. Other features of isoparametric elements which are attractive for the achievement of the objectives set for the new QUADS element are a consistent formulation of mem- brane and bending strains, particularly for thick shell elements[3], and low cost, both in development and in application, achieved by the use of shape functions Unfortunatly, standard§ isoparametric thick shell ele ments are.not noted for high accuracy, exceot when the number of edge nodal points is increased to a large value. ‘The simplest member of the quadrilateral family, namely sn element with four nodes. which would otherwise he ‘most suitable for our purposes, does not even appear in the literature on isoparametric elements. The reason for the omission is that the accuracy of the element is extremely poor: it is, in fact, nonconvergent unless the thickness is allowed to exceed the other dimensions of the element The attractions of the four-noded thick-shell iso- parametric element were suficient, however, to spur an investigation of means to improve its accuracy. It was known, from recent related work on simple membrane and solid elements, that reduced order integration of transverse shear strain, which had heretofore been ap- plied only to higher order elements(6), could alleviate the worst features ofthe element and raise its competence to the constant strain level. Some very erly work on beam clements{7] provided clues for raising the competence to the linear strain level. Further discoveries were soon sade, a5 will be described, leading to a four noded clement with nearly complete linear strain competence. ‘The application of isoparametric principles to the derivation of a beam element is instructive because it ‘exposes the deficiencies of the standard approach and. reveals the necessary corrections. It suggests, further- ‘more, a method for improving the more important two- dimensional case. Consider the prismatic beam segment shown in Fig. 1 together with an assumed cubie displacement function WH Wot WET Wad HWE Yee wo where yy ie a constant transverse shear strain. Themm ICHARD HH. MACIEAL i i Be = ‘ 8 Fig 1. Beam element. curvature x, the transverse shear strain y and the strain energy E, as computed by exact analysis, will be com- pared with the same quantities computed for a beam element constructed by a standard isoparamettic for- mulation. ‘The results from exact analysis are Konst 3nd) @ (Eee + Gay) In the isoparametric formulation, the distributions of both the lateral displacement, w, and the rotation of the normal, 8 = éwléx%, are defined by the shape func- tions No= (O12; y= (+6) ° which have derivatives Nin oNlog~—112, Ne~erislog= 12.) ‘The values of the displacements and rotations pro- vided by eqn (1) at the (Wo ends Of dhe Deam segment we = Wo Wit Wa Mss We = Mot Wt Wt WDE Yd ta Poe,—2wet3wis 86 =Fon, 420,430) 8) ‘The resuiting expressions for curvature and trancverse shear strain are oes ue Bw? FN OND J oaNi+ MND ON ON. | (6) 4, pont me) ‘Numerical integration using two Gauss points produces exact results, so that the strain energy of the iso- parametric beam element may be expressed as bf ene +G4ni ae 0 Considering only the quadratic term (w:) the ratio of the strain energy for the isoparametric element to the exact strain energy is Poa ner Eile) E.Ge) ® ‘The second term is negligible ony ifthe length of the sequicat is sinall compared to its depth, which is an intolerable requirement for practical analysis. The term. ccan, however, be removed by the simple expedient of ignoring the tern 2g in dhe eyuation for This i equivalent, in the jargon of finite clement analysis, to employing “reduced order integration” (in this case a single Gauss point located a ¢ = 0) in the computation of the strain energy due to transverse shear. When applied to the derivation of a quadrilateral membrane element, this expedient produces @ good non-conforming clement{S] which is similar to one derived independently by Tumer et al[8}, Pian(9] and Wilson et al. (10) at earlier dates. ‘Turing next to the cubic term (ws), tis seen that the isoparametric formulation contains a ws term in 7, whereas the exact result contains a w, term in x~ Thus, it is possible that the deficiency in bending energy (the xé term) can be compensated by an increase in the {tansverse shear energy. For the special case when 7, = 0, the energies due to Ws are ow eStlys ® Bn) =“y Which will be the same if GA is selected equal to 12". For the case when y,0, static equilibrium can be used tw prose the following exact selatiouship ~48EL EL ax Fo = AE a thigher rer tems) (10) wa Ignoring the higher order terms and replacing GA by GAT in eqn (7), the energes due to wy are 9651), , 2B1),, Boo" (1 a) ay soa (,, pany T (PG, stich wil be the came i re (ry oat= (ete a The term F'/I2EI will be called the residual bending fexbilty. Tae result expressed by eqn (12) was used in the early 1950s in connection with the development of an electrical analogy for beams{7). Internal forces are easily evaluated because the product GA*y; is equal to the correct transverse shear force for the beam segment and the product Ely, is equal to the correct bending moment at the center of the beam segment. To summarize, a two-node beam element which is accurate to third order in lateral displacement can be obtained from the isoparametric formulation by comput- ing the transverse shear strain at the center of the clement and by altering the elastic coeficient for trans- verse shear to include a term called the residual bonding flexibility. Neither of these modifications affects the rigid body properties of the element, since they only modify the elastic cooficiente and the locations where stains‘A smple quaaniateral soe eement sre computed, but not the manner in which strains are computed. The extension (o x two-dimensional rec~ ‘angular element is self-evident forthe case of bending in a direction parallel to a side of the element. [ELASTIC STIFFNESS OF & PLANE QUADRILATERAL ELEMENT ‘The properties of a plane quadrilateral element se- parate into membrane properties associated with inplane isplacements (u,), and bending properties associated ‘out-of-plane displacements and rotations (w, a, A). ‘The element that willbe described has twenty independent external degrees of freedom consisting of (ux, W, a, B) at cach of its four comers, The internal degrees of freedom are the strains inthe middle surface €"}= ey Yo| the curvatures {x} =[eo Yor Aios and the transverse shear strains {y'}= [70%] Since itis proposed to teat Yay differently than ¢, and. and o treat yo differently than x. and xy it is necessary to define an element coordinate system with axes approximately parallel tothe edges of the element. For the nor-ectangular case, the method of selecting ates shown in Fig. 2 is recommended ‘The only modification to standard isoparametric theory for membrane action is that the shear strain, Yay, is ‘computed atthe center of the element (=m =0). This value is used to evaluate stresses and strain enerey at a 2% 2 array of Gauss points, together with strains, c, and ¢,, computed directly at these points. The justification {or the modification follows directly from the example of the beam element. Whereas the standard isoparametric formulation requies the edges to remain straight when the corners are displaced. the modified formulation per- mits them to be curved; for example, a pure inplane bending couple produces quadratic curvature of two ‘opnacing cites and na shear etain The ealectnn of one formulation or the other is a matter of practical ap- plication since special circumstances can be des Where one of the other is correct. It turns out that the modified formulation is better in most practical exam- ples For bending action, 2 number of modifications are Tequited to overcome the deficiencies of standard iso- parametric theory. Let the lateral displacement be ex- pressed as a double power series in the parameters & a W = Woot Wok + Worn + Wool? + Wisk too ‘and arrange the coeficients in a pyramid, as shown below: Fig. 2. Method for selecting axes of the elemeat coordinate ate w ‘The terms in the first two rows represent rigid body notions and consiam transverse shea strains, the terms in the third row represent constant curvatures and the terms in the fourth row represent curvatures that vary linearly with § and 7. The only curvature term that Is correctly treated by standard isoparametric theory is 1. It follows directly from the discussion of the beam element that the terms Way and Wo: require reduced order integration ofthe energy due to transverse shear and that the terms ws» and wes can be corrected by the in- troduction of residual bending Mexiilty. It might be imagined, by analogy with the membrane case, that the treatment of terms wa, and Ww, can be improved by evaluating the twist, yay atthe center of the element. This surmise is incorrect, 2s will now be shown. ‘According to isoparametic theory, as applied to a four-noded quadriateral element, the rotations of the normals, a= awlax = y, and B = away, are bilinear functions of € and 1, ie. a cerca etl (3) B= Bot Brof + Born + BnEn| For the special case of a rectangular element with side lengths Ax and Ay, the corresponding curvatures are aa Ax a0 72 _ 28 _ Ay aB_ Ay ay 2am 2 da, B_ Ay vy Y Caen + ag) wo ya Teta Ax Flawt aun) (Por Pus) “ x Pov Bun) It willbe noted that the linear terms are not independent and that the conions for dependence canbe stated in the form 2% ar as) Be _ ay ae ‘These conditions are similar to the curvature com- patibility conditions for a plate with zero transverse shear strains sy _ 9 Xe ar ay (6) ey 2 ye ay ax Although we do not assume the transverse shear strains to be zero in the Gal form of the element, itis nevertheless true that the conditions of eqn (16) ae, in ‘much better approximation to the tue state of stain dian the conditions uf eqn (15). The conditions of eqn (16) are satisfied if the twist used to compute strain energy is taken to be Fea Who a) wheie xi, is the value of twist computed by eqa (14) at1% Rowato H, MacNea integration point (g), and x’, isthe value of twist computed byeqn(4)at = 9 =O. With the modification indicated by eqn (17), the energy due to bending is computed by ‘numerical integration at «2 x 2 array of Gauss points. This results in an energy deficiency (difference between E, and ;) whose leading terms are, for the special case of a rectangular eloment with homogeneous material proper- ties, ag) ‘The wh and wi terms ate corectable by the in- ‘troduction of residual bending flexibility. The term proportional to Poisson's ratio is not correctable. ‘The integration points for transverse shear must be selected carefully. It is clea, from the case of the beam clement, that the points where 1. is evaluated must le aloug the live ¢ ~ 0, Two points ate selevted at — #1/V3 as shown in Fig. 3, in order to obtain the correct strain ‘energy for linear variation of 1. inthe 7 direction. The ‘wansverse sear strain at hentegration points are related to the components of motion atthe corner points () by the eauation Ea 4, w tab ff = BID) (3} a ID) is evaluated from the shape function, N,, and its denvatives, Ny and N,., By the equation Na ONE 0 Dial eae 0) Neo -Ne ‘where superscripts identify the points in Fig. 3 where the terms are evaluate. For the special case of a rectangular element, the substitution of eqn (12) into eqn (19) gives the general result 4 , Been + warn + ws) + (hier order tems) ‘ 4 + wo) + (auger order terms) jy lfor + wisn + We # mane rar tems) en The terms proportion to & » and é vanish at the integration points. The terms proportional 9 panda, are used to correct the wie and was terms in the bending. ‘energy deficiency (eqn 18). Proceeding by analogy with the case of the beam clement, the siness matix dle to transverse shear aut ws or cin a0 Fig 3, Placement of points to evaluate wansvere shear stains, ‘outing vorues points () and (js waitten in the form (Kgl +2T 1D) where [Z"] is a matrix of real transverse shear fexi- bilities and {2*] is a matrix of residual bending fexi- bilities. The dimension of each is [(volume) x(modul- us)! Inthe case of (2'] the volume effect is treated by pre- and post-diagonal multipliers, thus: (2) mewrervT @ where Vet) 0 0 0 me] 9 VObb) 0 0 wiry og 0 vane 9 [C9 0 0 0 vehi) Ja is the two-dimensional Jacobian at point (a), tis the thickness for transverse shea at point (a) tc. Fora rectangular element, J, = Jp = Je ~ Ja = AxAyi4. The ex tea factor of to under the radical occurs because there ae only two integration points for each strain com- ponent father than four. For isotropic materials (G*]=G"(U}, where (1) is a (44) identity matrix. For the general case of anis. tropic transverse shear material let G0 AGE yal 0. Gh 1G iGi WGl=) iG 1G, Ge 0 es) toh ich 0 co where Gly, Gis and Gl are the elements of the 2x2 inauis of Wansverse sheat uel, The Ueatnent of -y coupling in eqn (25) is consistent with the symmetrical aurangement of the integration points shown in Fig. 3. ‘The resgual bending lexibiity matrix is (U+a)AvIE, (=a), 0 ° yo tb | (I @\A7/En (+a) IE) o 0 "Tan | 0 0 +b Ay En -b)ayEn ty) Lo 0 (1-day Es (14 b)BY VE,{A simple quatlteral shell element vs where A is the surface area of the element; [ois the ening moment of inertia per uit widdhy Ox = ath n- 1); y= 3054 yey) and En, Ena are the diagonal terms inthe clastic modulus matrix used evaluate ending stiffness, For isotople materials Ey En= E(t=5?) ‘The coeficients (a) and (b) in eqn (26) were evaluated by numerical experimentation. 1 will be noted that their effect is il for uniform transverse shear tess. For 7. proportional to 9, on the other hand, the resulting ine ements i 7, are proportional to (a), one considers the case of & long row of elements subjected to a torsional couple at one end, itis clear that (a) should be set equal to zero because the load is catied by twisting moment rather than by bending. If, onthe other hand, the same load is applied to a very short cantlevered element, such tht al of the load i carried by diferential bending, (a) shoul be set equal to 1.0. The former case was judged to be more important than the latter, andthe parameters (a) and (b) were intlly set to very small ‘numbers (0.01). Numerical experimentation, to be dis- cussed later. showed that a somewhat laser valoe (0.04) five better results in general, and that an aspect ratio correction, as expressed by the formulas eu-o85 @ -oy et(-OR8 was necessary to avoid excessive torsional dis placements for elements with large aspect ratios. Note, incidentally, that a= 1.0 in the limit. Ax/Ay =0. in agreement with previous discussion. The presence of € as a free parameter underscores the general point that the design of a nite element necessarily involves a consideration of the relative importance of different states of strain, even though said consideration is often merely implied by a truncated polynomial expansion, oF imbedded in a general principle such as clement con- formabilty. CGhomETRIC STIPE OF A PLANE QUADRSLATERA. ELEMENT Geometric. stiffness{11, 12] is a fist. order ap- proximation to geometrically nonlinear behaviour which is particularly useful fr the linearized solution of buck- ling problems. The terms inthe geometric stiffness ma- tix for an element are linear functions of the com- ponents of stress in the element. For plate and shell elements it is usual to consider only the membrane stresses, in which case the elements of the geometric stiffness matrix, [Kf], can be derived from a potential function. E*. bv the general exoression ia 8) where prod f[dayte.nal+o)"B1opTas 0) —aulay one | wf} {ay | aulax ~ axlay 0 tefl Oo, rai} Ole [| oto -rn 0 ‘20 ‘The membrane stes components ate evaluated from a previous eration and are Considered constant n eqn (28). The calculation via an isoparametric formulation is straightforward since aw ie on) ‘The accuracy can, however, be improved by using the following expression for the (b) vector. w= {2"} Py to where a and fare evaluated diectly at Gauss points, ‘while, is evaluated at points (a6) and yy is evalated 2 points (,d) in Fig. 3. The improvement in accuracy oecurs because the detivatives 2wiax and away are bllnear functions off and y if tey ave evaluated bY eas G2), whereas they are merely constants if they ate evaluated by eqn (0) PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION As stated in the introduction, the new QUADS element has been designed to accommodate a wide variety of practical applications, consistent with reasonable cost and user convenience. The isoparametric approach pro- vides a very easy implementation for most of the fea- tures listed in the Introduction including: elastic coupling between bending and stretching; transverse shear flexi- bility; anisotropic material properties; variable thickness ‘non-uniform temperature distribution and mass proper- ties. Only the first and last of these particular features require additional explanation. I is assumed that inplane components of strain vary linearly in the normal direc- tion so thatthe stress-strain relationships take the form TG, f TG, 0 Ve" G, 1G, 0 Vx 03) a} Lo 0 TGlly ‘where (€7} is u vector of strains inthe middle surtace; ‘x, vector of curvatures; {y'), vector of transverse shear strains; {f}, vector of inplane forces per unit width; {m}, vecior of moments per unit width; (g}, vector of trans- verse shear forces per unit width, and [G), [Ga] and (G4) are 3X3 symmetric matrices and [Gs] is a 2x2 sym- tmeui matrix, The thicknesses for membrane forces and transverse shear forces, T and T, and the moment of inertia per unit width, i, are introduced as normalizing {actors 10 give the [6] maurces te same dimensions For isotropic materials, (G.)= [Gal and (6. tical applications of the [G.] matrix are shells with offset nodal points, integrally stiffened shells and layered shells. Elements of the consistent mass matrix coupling the same component of translation at two nodal points arert OHARD HL. MACINEAL obtsned from My=% eleTaNN, where the subscript (g) on the Jacobian and on the thickness references an integration point, and the shape function N, = (1+ &6) (1+ na/4. Note that there is no ‘mass coupling to rotational degrees of freedom. A reason {or not including such coupling is that the user has the option to set (Gal: to convert QUADS into a membrane element. Other reasons are that eqn (34) is ¢asy to implement and inexpensive to we. The imped mast option, whichis even easier and less expens! ‘htained by summing the terms in each ow of eqn 4, procedure which clearly gives the correct forces for ‘uniform acceleration of the element Since SN, = 1, it follows that the lumped mass at nodal point (i) is (34) Moa 3 alten, 6 The only feature which has not yet been discussed is the extension from a plane quadrilateral to a warped ‘quadrilateral. The approach taken was to modifv the s of the plane quadrilateral by pre-and post- tulips so as to satisfy rigid body properties. Al though this procedure is satisfactory only if the deviation from flatness is moderatly small it has the virtue of simplicity and, furthermore, it accommodates the concent of a warned membrane shell in which force hut ‘ot moments act at nodal points. Given four non-planar nodal points, a mean plane is Aafied that ie equidistant from the four poate, and = fiat finite element is defined that produces forces and moments at the projections of the four points onto the ‘mean plane. The normal force, f, and the moments, m. and m, can be transferred ditty to the nodal points without disturbing equilibrium, but the transfer of the inplane foroes, fx and fy, creates moments equsl to the forces multiplied by the distance from the mean plane to the nodal point. These moments are balanced by ad- ditional normal forces, rather than by additional mo- ‘ments, in order to accommodate the case of a membrane shel which the user can select by setting [0 =0. ‘Although, as mentioned, the moments, m ad my can be transferred from the mean plane to the nodal points without distrbing equilibrium, the only component of ‘moment that can be transferred from one element 10 another is one whichis parallel tothe intersection of the mean planes of the two elements. The reason is that any other component will have projection along the nora to one of the two mean planes, which direction has n0 stiffness. It was discovered, during testing, that this feature results in an extemely weak suvtutal adel fot a twisted surface. The remedy was to tit the element's ‘moment vector at a nodal point (mq.m,) into the plane defined by the two edges which meet af the nodal point, and to equilibrate the added moment about the normal, ‘mi. by inane forces, f, and f,, Wit this modification, ‘moments about the common edge of two adjacent le: iments wil always be transferred. ‘Alter the paper was submitted for publication twas discovered ‘hat are erors occur whea the skew angle ofthe element exceeds twenty degrees. This error was traced t coupling between rans ‘ete shear srains, and han subsequently been comestd NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS Since the QUAD clement is used in a_publety available program, it was. important that all of the capabilites described in the previous section be thoroughly tested before release. Many of the tests that were performed were designed to uncover erors inthe code, particulary in relation to material properties and iregular geometry. Tests with a few elements were largely sufcient for this purpose. Two of the ex: periences in this category may be of interest. The first Wasa single element torsion test, in which sef-equirat- ing lateral forees were applied to the comers of a ree- tungular element fr a series of cases in which the aspect ratio of the plate was increased from one to twenty. It was discovered that the deflections become excessively large for the larger aspect ratis, This defect was cor- rected by modifying the form ofthe a and b parameters to that shown in eqn (27). With this change, the singe clement torsional deflections are correct to within 1.3% for all aspect ratios, as are the rests for transverse shear loads The second experience was the analysis of a lona cantilever plate with aspect ratio equal to eleven and a builtin twist from root to tp of MF. We were dismayed to find thatthe displacements due to lateral end loading were more than 100 times too large. The reason for tis discrepancy and its correction have been discused in connection with the modifications for warped elements. ‘After modification, results obtained witha 14% 2 mesh of lements were accurte to about 1%. The same dis- crepancy exists i the older NASTRAN plate elements butt has never been reported by users. A number of experiments were conducted in order to tect the accuracy and convergence of the slameat and fo establish a value for the « parameter. The fist such example was the analysis of a laterally Joaded thin ree- tangular plate with either clamped or simple supports, and either a uniform load or a conceatrated lad atthe center. Many elements have been tested with ths exam- ple and reported inthe Fvrature, co thatthe interested reader can compare QUADS with other elements. tis @ ‘good example because, even though the geometry is Simple, the state of stress isnot. Figure 4 shows a rather complete set of results for ¢ = 0.04 and Fig. $ shows a tess complete set of results for « = 0.01, 0.08 and 0.10.1 will be noted from Fig. § that the effect of « decreases a3 the number of elements increases and that 0.04 appears to be a good choice for e. Tis isthe value used in the released version, and in all of the other tals Le reported. It wil be noted from Fig. 4 that the accuracy is not particularly sensitive to aspect ratio, type of load or type of support, that itis quite good for a siall number of elements and that it converges fairy slowiy. The effet of nonrectangular mesh spacing on ac- suracy is lustiated it Fy. 6 Thete appears wo be some degradation of accuracy, but perhaps less than might be expected in view ofthe nonuniform treatment accorded to diferent componcuts of sain? Perhaps the most interesting structure that_was analyzed is the cylindrical shell roof shown in Fig. 7, which has been used fo test many element. Refevenes Tis] compares the results for nine elements by seven authors. The rests in Fig, 7 compare the new QUADS fgsinst two older NASTRAN elements. ‘The ine Provement of QUADS over QUAD? is primarily due to the beter treatment of membrane shear strain, since QUAD? and QUAD! have similar accuracies for the‘A sompe quaoruteral soe element a a woe 4S Fig 4, Error in central deflection of «rectangular plate, «= 0.04 44% L e010 @ g Sx Y 601 -anL—_# ‘ ee coy? ® 0 +4%l 001 —2%' Fig 5. Blfectof« on ero in central defection of square pate: (@) Uniform load, simple supports, (alb)= 1, (6) center load, ‘damped sopport, (lb) — 1 Percent eror ‘Regular mesh Uniform foas+0.60% Cente load +2988 237% Fig. 6, Bifect of nonrectangular mesh on error in central deflec- tion, 44 Mosh in quadrant of square pate. Simple supports. 2004, lap 2, | 9122) Mas dee for ancront) [| wasraan ‘ane tt iy - Namber of dearees of treason Fig 7. Midsite defection of a shell oof under gravity loud. lateral deflection of plates. In order to shed light on why the QUADS element converges from above, the 2x? case was rerun with each clement in the mesh replaced by flat facets containing 4 elements. The results were virtually identical, indicating that the excess flexibility of ‘the stroctural model is primarily Jue wo the use ofthe Dat elements on a curved surface. A tentative rule of thumb ‘based on this single example is that engineering accuracy (47) is achieved ifthe inched angle per clement is ten degrees or less. ‘The cylindrical compressor blade described in Fig. 8 was amazed in order to test che dynamic capability of QUADA. The best available data for this problem are laboratory test results(16, 17] and the numerical cal- salatious vf Olson and Lindbesg( 7) using a 44 anes of triangular shell elements with 36 degrees of freedom per element. It is notable that, for the second mode, the ost refined QUADY model agices well with Olson's ‘aleulations but not with the test results. The most probable reason is tht the test frequency is reduced by attachment flexibility to a larger degree for the secondOOOO } 3 s | sas.0l 20.2 fare [ass.7 a as | the Peli een lec Fg 8. Vibraon mode frequencies uf » eyinlial compress bla, a aon i [ee een eee } |_| theory | nesinéaxi) | seshcr6x2) eee | ©} 1.000 856} 2 | zsss | 2.507 hysical Properties Longe = 10.0 Thickness = 05 vousson's watio = 1/3 Fig. 9. Torsion bending buckling ofan enddoaded cantilever. ‘mode (which has no node line on the surface) than for any other mode. Geometric stiffness was tested by moans of the buck. ling problem illustrated in Fig. 9, which i a fairly severe test because the stresses due to the applied load are ‘non-uniform within each element, and because the buck- Ting modes involve both lateral beading and twist. It will be noted that the results for the fine mesh exceed the ‘theoretical results. A possible explanation is that the ‘theoretical results do not account for restraint of warping (differential bending). ‘The accuracy of the QUADM element appears to be satisfactory and to compare favorably with the older NASTRAN elements, but an even more gratifying result i that computer tims for stiffnese matrix assembly and stress recovery are greatly reduced. In 2 recent bench- mark comparison of QUAD2 and QUADS involving 420, ‘laments, the cost of each of thete operations was re duced by approximately a factor of 5. The importance of ‘matrix assembly and stress recovery for problems of this, size is illustrated by the fact that the total cost for the analysis was reduced by forty percent. Although recent improvements in the general procedures for matrix as- sembly within NASTRAN[I} sceount for part of the[A sample quadrsteral shel element ws cost reduction, much of the credit is due to the inherent simplicity of the isoparametric formulation om which QUADS is based. ‘The QUADS fills a conspicuous void atthe lowest rank in the hierarchy of isoparametric thick-shell elements ‘and it appears to meet the tests of accuracy, versatility and cost. The new features which were necessary to convert an outcast into a respectable element are: special attention given to each component of strain and cut- vature with regard to the selection of points where it is evaluated, and the addition of residual bending flexibility in the transverse shear terms. These ideas can also be applied to higher order members in the family of iso- parametsic thickshell elements. Each of the speciic ‘modifications in the QUADS (reduced order integration of shear terms, satisfaction of curvature compatibility, and residual bending flexibility) has its analog for higher order elements. An eight-noded curved shell element which is currently being developed by the author will be reported when test results are available, rernrncs 1. RM Mac 2, The NASTRAN Thon! Mental NASA $P.2160, Seaton Sap. 1972 2. O.€,Benkewer The Fine Eonnt Method Exsiering Stier Mefen Hanon 3a ap. 4.8, Miron and A. Razague, The eaton of theo parame eens Pred of the Wand Coget on Fite Hoet Maio Stach Mechanar” roa, Dos, Expand, Vl hy pp. DMD (2-17 Ot is >. MICINASTRAN appnion Maun Sesto 28027. The Nea Sewer Cp, Los Age, Call Ua. i 6.0. €. Gkiviee, J oo and RL Tyr, Rend ia tegration technique in general analysis of plates and shel Tn J. Nuner Meth. Engng 3, 295-90 (197) 7. W.T, Russel and RH. MacNeal, An improved electrical analogy forthe analysis of beams in bending. J. Appl. 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Sander and P. Beckers, Delinquent ante elements for Shell idealization. Proc. World Cong. on Fite Elem. Meth. in Suc. Mech, Bournemouth, England. Vl. Il pp.2-1-231 (12-17 Oct. 1999, 15, RW. Clough and J. L. Tocher, Finite element stifness ‘matrices for analysis of plate bending. Proc. Con. on Matrix Meth in Struct. Meck AFRDI. Report AFFDL-TR-4680 (Dec. 1568}, 16, M.D. Oson and G. M. Lindberg, Vibration analysis of cantilevered curved pats using 2 new cylindrical shell ite lament, AFFDL Report AFFDL-TR-S 180 pp. 247-268 17. M. D. OWon G. M. Lindberg, Dynamic analysis of shallow sels with a doublycurved triangular finite element, J Sound Vie. 93), 299-918 197). 18, C.W. McCormick, Sparse matrix operation in ite element analysis, Presented t ASCE Annual Convention, Philadel ‘hia, Pennsylvania (27 Sept. 1 Ost. 1976)