ABSTRACT

In the paper, a solid-shell finite element is proposed for composite structures consisting of woven fabrics, with two families of fibres, embedded in a matrix material. It is particularly suited for application to thin shell structures curing locking phenomena by implementing both the EAS and the ANS concept. Moreover, using reduced integration with hourglass stabilization leads to high computational efficiency, still representing satisfactorily the through-the-thickness stress distribution, since the number of integration points can be chosen arbitrarily. Orthotropic material behaviour is incorporated by means of a micromechanically motivated model, which is based on structural tensors representing different fibre orientations.