Shell Element (4 node) Example 02

For general description of the non linear shell element click  here   

Lateral Loaded Plate.

=> Usfos Control File
=> Structural File
=> Animation 3D

The plate is loaded with a distributed load of 27 kN/m2, which is the ultimate load according to elastic plate theory. The Shelload command is used, where the verticale load is assigned  to all shell elements referred to material with ID = 1, (see Usfos control file).

 Usfos load factor 1.0 corresponds to this reference load, and in the plots below, load-deflection curves are presented for different mesh densities and solution algorithms showing good agreement for all cases.  Notice also the yield lines seen in the plot above, (the image presents effective plasic strain).   

The default structural file (stru.fem) contains the 4x12 mesh while the file stru_16_32.fem contains the model with mesh density shown in the image above.