On the linear analysis of plates and shells using a new-16 degrees of freedom flat shell element

In this paper, we present a new quadrilateral discrete Kirchhoff flat shell element (called DKQ16) with 16 degrees of freedom (three displacements U, V, W at each corner, a rotation θs at each mid-side) for the linear analysis of plates and shells. This new element is formulated on the basis of the so-called rational element method proposed by Zhong et al. [Zhong WX, Zeng J. J Computat Struct Mech Appl 1996;13:1–8 [in Chinese]]. In this new formulation, the rational quadrilateral plane element (RQ4) is employed for the membrane part and a new discrete Kirchhoff plate element DKQ8 proposed by the present authors [Batoz JL, Hammadi F, Zheng CL, Zhong WX, submitted for publication] is taken for the bending part. The DKQ16 element is one of the most simple quadrilateral flat shell elements. It can be combined with the DKT12 (or Morley) element. Numerical results for some typical problems demonstrate the overall good performance of the new shell element.