ISOPARAMETRIC FINITE STRIP ELEMENT

For many structures having regular geometric plans and simple boundary conditions, the traditional finite strip method offers advantages ove r the finite element technique especially in terms of the computationa l costs. The present paper presents formulations for a number of isopa rametric finite strip elements which include elements with three or tw o corners and those which can cater for cases involving use of adjacen t finite strip elements with different 'lengths'. The proposed formula tions extend the range of applications of the finite strip technique t o cases involving structural elements with non-rectangular and/or curv ed boundaries. In particular, as discussed elsewhere, unlike the tradi tional finite strip techniques in which implementation of boundary con ditions different from the simply supported case is difficult, the pre sent formulations can cater for different types of boundary conditions with relative ease. Very encouraging correlations have been found bet ween numerical data based on the proposed formulations and previously reported elastic results for a number of structural forms.