A new axi-symmetric element for thin walled structures

Abstract

A new axi-symmetric finite element for thin walled structures is presented in this work. It uses the solid-shell element's concept with only a single element and multiple integration points along the thickness direction. The cross-section of the element is composed of four nodes with two degrees of freedom each. The proposed formulation overcomes many locking pathologies including transverse shear locking, Poisson's locking and volumetric locking. For transverse shear locking, the formulation uses the selective reduced integration technique, for Poisson's locking it uses the enhanced assumed strain (EAS) method with only one enhancing variable. The B-bar approach is used to eliminate the isochoric deformations in the hourglass field while the EAS method is used to alleviate the volumetric locking in the constant part of the deformation tensor. Several examples are shown to demonstrate the performance and accuracy of the proposed element with special focus on the numerical simulations for the beverage can industry.