A general-purpose, inelastic, rotation-free Kirchhoff–Love shell formulation for peridynamics

Abstract

We present a comprehensive rotation-free Kirchhoff–Love (KL) shell formulation for peridynamics (PD) that is capable of modeling large elasto-plastic deformations and fracture in thin-walled structures. To remove the need for a predefined global parametric domain, Principal Component Analysis is employed in a meshfree setting to develop a local parameterization of the shell midsurface. The KL shell kinematics is utilized to develop a correspondence-based PD formulation. A bond-stabilization technique is employed to naturally achieve stability of the discrete solution. Only the mid-surface velocity degrees of freedom are used in the governing thin-shell equations. 3D rate-form material models are employed to enable simulating a wide range of material behavior. A bond-associative damage correspondence modeling approach is adopted to use classical failure criteria at the bond level, which readily enables the simulation of brittle and ductile fracture. Discretizing the model with asymptotically compatible meshfree approximation provides a scheme which converges to the classical KL shell model while providing an accurate and flexible framework for treating fracture. A wide range of numerical examples, ranging from elastostatics to problems involving plasticity, fracture, and fragmentation, are conducted to validate the accuracy, convergence, and robustness of the developed PD thin-shell formulation. It is also worth noting that the present method naturally enables the discretization of a shell theory requiring higher-order smoothness on a completely unstructured surface mesh.