A family of shear-deformable shell finite elements for composite structures

The paper presents some aspects of refined analysis of multilayered composite plates and shells. Refined shell theory is based on a zig-zag (piece-wise linear) variation of displacement field through the thickness, and on a Reissner’s mixed variational formulation which allows an introduction of independent transverse shear fields in each layer and an enforcement of the interlaminar shear stress continuity. By relaxing basic assumptions, three additional models of interest are obtained. For the finite element approximation we use a four-noded mixed finite element on the basis of assumed strain variational approach.