Stability analysis of cylindrical shells using refined non-conforming rectangular cylindrical shell elements

The accuracy of stability analysis depends on the accuracy of both the element sti ness matrix and geometry sti ness matrix. Therefore, when carrying out the stability analysis of thin cylindrical shells using the nite element methods will require, rstly, a re ned non-conforming rectangular curved cylindrical shell element RCSR4 is proposed according to the re ned non-conforming FE method, in which both the C1 and C0 weak continuity conditions are satis ed and as a result, can ensure the convergence of computation. At the same time, a re ned geometrical sti ness matrix is introduced to replace the standard consistent geometrical sti ness matrix. Simple expressions of the re ned constant strain matrices with adjustable constants are introduced with respect to the weak continuity conditions. Numerical examples are presented to show that the present method can indeed improve the performance and the accuracy in stability analysis