A model for thin shells in the combined finite-discrete element method

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to present a new numerical model for geometric nonlinear analysis of thin-shell structures based on a combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM).Design/methodology/approachThe model uses rotation-free, three-node triangular finite elements with exact formulation for large rotations, large displacements in conjunction with small strains.FindingsThe presented numerical results related to behaviour of arbitrary shaped thin shell structures under large rotations and large displacement are in a good agreement with reference solutions.Originality/valueThis paper presents new computationally efficient numerical model for geometric nonlinear analysis and prediction of the behaviour of thin-shell structures based on combined FDEM. The model is implemented into the open source FDEM package “Yfdem”, and is tested on simple benchmark problems.