An efficient facet shell element for corotational nonlinear analysis of thin and moderately thick laminated composite structures

In the present work, an efficient facet shell element for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of laminated composite structures using the corotational approach is developed. The facet element is developed by combining the discrete Kirchhoff–Mindlin triangular bending element (DKMT), and the optimal membrane triangular element (OPT). The membrane-bending coupling effect of composite laminates is incorporated in the formulation, and inconsistent stress stiffness matrix is formulated. Using corotational formulation and the proposed facet element, some example laminated composite structures with geometric nonlinearity are analyzed, and the results are compared with those found using other facet elements.