Finite elements based on a first-order shear deformation moderate rotation shell theory with applications to the analysis of composite structures

The first-order shear deformation moderate rotation shell theory of Schmidt and Reddy R. Schmidt and J. N. Reddy, J. Appl. Mech. 55, 611–617 (1988)] is used as a basis for the development of finite element models for the analysis of the static, geometrically non-linear response of anisotropic and laminated structures. The incremental, total Lagrangian formulation of the theory is developed, and numerical solutions are obtained by using the isoparametric Lagrangian 9-node and Serendipity 8-node shell finite elements. Various integration schemes (full, selective reduced, and uniformly reduced integration) are applied in order to detect and to overcome the effects of shear and membrane locking on the predicted structural response. A number of sample problems of isotropic, orthotropic, and multi-layered structures are presented to show the accuracy of the present theory. The von Kármán-type first-order shear deformation shell theory and continuum 2D theory are used for comparative analyses.