Phenomenological invariants and their application to geometrically nonlinear formulation of triangular finite elements of shear deformable shells

A phenomenological definition of classical invariants of strain and stress tensors is considered. Based on this definition, the strain and stress invariants of a shell obeying the assumptions of the Reissner–Mindlin plate theory are determined using only three normal components of the corresponding tensors associated with three independent directions at the shell middle surface. The relations obtained for the invariants are employed to formulate a 15-dof curved triangular finite element for geometrically nonlinear analysis of thin and moderately thick elastic transversely isotropic shells undergoing arbitrarily large displacements and rotations. The question of improving nonlinear capabilities of the finite element without increasing the number of degrees of freedom is solved by assuming that the element sides are extensible planar nearly circular arcs. The shear locking is eliminated by approximating the curvature changes and transverse shear strains based on the solution of the Timoshenko beam equations. The performance of the finite element is studied using geometrically linear and nonlinear benchmark problems of plates and shells.