Static and Free Vibration Analysis of Stiffened Flat Shells by a Cell-Based Smoothed Discrete Shear Gap Method (CS-FEM-DSG3) Using Three-Node Triangular Elements

Abstract

A cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-FEM-DSG3) using three-node triangular element was recently proposed for static, free vibration and buckling analyses of stiffened Mindlin plates. The CS-FEM-DSG3 element is a significant improvement of the original DSG3 element by using smoothing technique to soften the stiffness of the DSG3 element while it has still inherited the locking-free feature of the former. In this paper, the CS-FEM-DSG3 is further extended for the static and free vibration analyses of stiffened flat shells by combining the original plate element CS-FEM-DSG3 with Allman’s plane stress element and a linearly isotropic two-node stiffened beam element. The compatibility of displacement field of stiffeners and shell is applied at the contact positions. Numerical results of the proposed element are compared with those of some existing methods to demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the proposed method.