A REFINED MULTI-LAYER SHELL ELEMENT USING A MINDLIN´S THEORY EVOLUTION
Summary :
A MULTI-LAYER FINITE ELEMENT ADAPTED TO THICK SHELL STRUCTURES IS PRESENTED. THE DISPLACEMENT COMPONENTS, WHICH ARE LINEAR BY LAYER, ALLOW A BETTER REPRESENTATION OF THE SHEAR TRANSVERSE EFFECTS. THE VALIDATION OF THE MODEL, BASED ON THE COMPARISON WITH UN FIRST ORDER THEORY ELEMENT, IS MADE ON AN ORTHOTROPIC SQUARE PLATE WITH DIFFERENT PLY ORIENTATIONS AND DIFFERENT BOUNDARY CONDITIONS.
