A partial hybrid stress solid-shell element for the analysis of laminated composites

In this paper we introduce a low order partial hybrid stress solid-shell element based on the composite energy functional for the analysis of laminated composite structures. This solid-shell element has eight nodes with only displacement degrees of freedoms, and three-dimensional constitutive models can be directly employed in the present formulation without any additional treatment. The assumed interlaminar stress field provides very accurate interlaminar stress calculation through the element thickness. These elements can be stacked on top of each other to model multilayer structures, fulfilling the interlaminar stress continuity at the interlayer surfaces and zero traction conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the laminate. The present solid-shell does not show the transverse shear, trapezoidal and thickness locking phenomenon, and passes both the membrane and the bending patch tests. To assess the present formulation’s accuracy, a variety of popular numerical benchmark examples related to element convergence, mesh distortion, shell and laminated composite analyses are investigated and the results are compared with those available in the literature. The numerical results show the accuracy of the presented solid-shell element for the analysis of laminated composites.

► We present a versatile low-order partial hybrid stress solid-shell element.
► The element formulation is based on the composite energy functional.
► The element is suitable for the analysis of homogenous and layered shell structures.
► Accurate interlaminar stress field can be determined in laminated composites.
► Element is locking-free, shows good convergence and insensitive to mesh distortions.