A family of shear-deformable shell finite elements for composite structures

The paper presents some aspects of refined analysis of multilayered composi te plates and shells. Refined shell theory is based on a zig-zag (piece-wis e linear) variation of displacement field through the thickness, and on a R eissner's mixed variational formulation which allows an introduction of ind ependent transverse shear fields in each layer and an enforcement of the in terlaminar shear stress continuity. By relaxing basic assumptions, three ad ditional models of interest are obtained. For the finite element approximat ion we use a four-noded mixed finite element on the basis of assumed strain variational approach. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.