Formulation and evaluation of new triangular, quadrilateral, pentagonal and hexagonal discrete Kirchhoff plate/shell elements

The paper deals with the formulation of plate and shell elements based on t he discrete Kirchhoff technique. In the first part we review the flat facet shell elements which have been formulated during the last 30 years. In the second part, we present the formulation of a new family of discrete Kirchh off plate/shell elements based on the free formulation. The triangular, qua drilateral, pentagonal and hexagonal elements belong also to the family of semi-Loof elements having only displacements at the corner nodes and one ta ngential rotation along each side. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Lt d.