Geometrically nonlinear analysis of laminated composites by an improved degenerated shell element

The objective of this paper is to extend the use of the improved degenerate d shell element to the linear and the large displacement analysis of plates and shells with laminated composites. In the formulation of the element st iffness, the combined use of three different techniques was made. This elem ent is free of serious shear/membrane locking problems and undesirable comp atible/commutable spurious kinematic deformation modes. The total Lagrangia n approach has been utilized for the definition of the deformation and the solution to the nonlinear equilibrium equations is obtained by the Newton-R aphson method. The applicability and accuracy of this improved degenerated shell element in the analysis of laminated composite plates and shells are demonstrated by solving several numerical examples.