Development of geometrically exact new shell elements based on general curvilinear co-ordinates

In the present study rst-order shear deformable shell nite elements based on general curvilinear coordinates are proposed. For the development of the present shell elements, a partial mixed variational functional with independently assumed strains is provided in order to avoid the severe locking troubles known as transverse shear and membrane lockings. Bubble functions are included in the shape function of displacement to improve the performance of the developed element. The proposed assumed strain four- and nine-node elements based on the general tensor shell theory provide an e cient linkage framework for shell surface modelling and nite element analysis. In the several benchmark problems, the present shell elements with exact geometric representations demonstrate their performance compared to previously reported results