ABSTRACT
Fundamentals of bending stress–strain and defection responses of flat plates are reviewed in Sections 7.1 and 7.2. Section 7.3 presents stress analysis of a shell – highlighting the dominant role of membrane stresses in the shell response mechanism. Stiffness calculations for plate bending response are developed in Section 7.4 followed by Section 7.5 defining stiffness properties of flat shell elements as a combination of resistance mechanisms arising from the in-plane membrane and out-of-plane bending deformations. Transverse shear deformation effects on the stiffness properties of flat shell elements are introduced in Section 7.6. Curved shell element formulations for general structural analysis applications are discussed in Section 7.7. Mesh quality and integration rules of shell elements are discussed in Section 7.8, followed by a review of ABAQUS-specific shell element options in Section 7.9. Practice problems for shell structural analyses are presented in the final Section 7.10.
