COMMUNICATIONS IN NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING Commun. Numer. Meth.

Engng 2005; 21:651674 Published online 8 June 2005 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/cnm.783

A DKT shell element for dynamic large deformation analysis

Shen Wu1; ; , Guangyao Li2 and Ted Belytschko2
Research Laboratory; Ford Motor Company; 2101 Village Road; SRL-MD 2115; Dearborn; MI 48124; U.S.A. 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering; Northwestern University; Evanston; IL 60208; U.S.A.
1 Ford

SUMMARY The 3-node triangular discrete Kirchho theory (DKT) element is studied in the context of explicit software for crash analysis. The element uses linear interpolation for the in-plane displacement, quadratic interpolation for the normal rotations. The transverse displacement has a Hermite cubic interpolation along element sides. Discrete Kirchho conditions are imposed at the corner nodes and the sides. The element is condensed to ve degrees-of-freedom per node and can be used with other 3-node and 4-node elements. For benchmark example, the DKT element gives good accuracy whereas the 3-node C 0 element is too sti . Examples of high-speed component impact analysis demonstrate that DKT element performs as good as BelytschkoTsay quadrilateral element, which has been the main element used for crashworthiness analyses. Copyright ? 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS:

discrete Kirchho ; triangular shell element; non-linear nite element; ReissnerMindlin plate; explicit nite element; large deformation

1. INTRODUCTION Crashworthiness analysis has become an important engineering application of non-linear explicit nite elements. In most of the applications, the 4-node BelytschkoTsay quadrilateral element [1] is used. However, meshing complex shapes such as automobiles with quadrilaterals is often burdensome. Therefore, a considerable incentive exists to develop triangular elements with comparable e ciency and accuracy. In addition to the meshing di culties, one of the drawbacks of the 4-node quadrilateral elements is the modelling of warping. Warped elements generally occur in any complex geometry. Furthermore, during large bending deformation, folding may occur along the diagonals of part of the quadrilateral elements and result in warping, and leads to deterioration in accuracy. On the other hand, for folding along

to: Shen R. Wu, Ford Research Laboratory, Ford Motor Company, 2101 Village Road, SRL-MD 2115, Dearborn, MI 48124, U.S.A. E-mail: swu@ford.com

Correspondence

Copyright ? 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 23 August 2004 Revised 5 January 2005 Accepted 4 March 2005

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one diagonal, the nodal distance along the other diagonal can decrease signicantly. This eventually causes signicant decrease in the stable time step in explicit computations and increase of computer time. Triangular meshes provide an alternative to avoid these shortcomings. However, the direct application of ReissnerMindlin theory to 3-node C 0 shell such as the LSDYNA triangular element, described in Reference [2], with linear interpolation for all components of displacements and normal rotations, leads to an element that is too sti and unacceptable except in small areas. As can be seen from linear studies in References [2, 3], among various triangular elements, the 3-node discrete Kirchho triangular (DKT) element appears most attractive. The discrete Kirchho approach involves approximations for the normal rotations within the element and independent description of the transverse displacement on the element boundary. Early development and application of the discrete Kirchho theory date back to late 1960s, e.g. see References [47]. The DKT element was considered, at that time, as an e ective element among the class of 9-DOF triangular plate bending elements that converge to the Kirchho thin plate solution. A decade later, in an assessment of plate bending elements with 3-DOF at the corner nodes only, Batoz et al. [8] concluded that the DKT element was still the most e cient and reliable element of this class. Since then, the DKT plate bending element has become more attractive over other triangular elements, and more developments and applications with DKT elements have been reported, e.g. see References [920]. The concept of the discrete Kirchho constraint has also been applied to other elements, such as the quadrilateral shell element, see References [11, 21]; the axisymmetric shell element, see Reference [22]; for examples of non-linear analysis by the DKT shell, see References [9, 23, 24]. By combining the DKT plate bending element with a plane element, various thin shell elements can be constructed. The simplest element in this family is a 3-node triangle, called DKT-CST, which combines the DKT plate element for bending and constant strain element (CST) for membrane deformation. Linear and non-linear analyses using DKT-CST shell elements can be found in References [9, 24], along with comparisons to other higher-order quadrilateral shells. Another type of DKT-CST shell element is developed in Reference [3] by using the Marguerre theory and a strain projection to improve membrane behaviour. Only linear analysis is performed in Reference [3]. In the current study, the DKT-CST thin shell is implemented in explicit nite element software to study its performance in non-linear transient dynamics analysis of large elasticplastic deformation due to impact. In what follows, we discuss the DKT element formulation and its implementation in an explicit nite element code in Section 2. Section 3 is devoted to the numerical examples for assessing the element performance with linear and non-linear test examples, and applications of component crash analysis, followed by concluding remarks in Section 4.

2. DKT FOR EXPLICIT FINITE ELEMENT In this section, we describe the 3-node triangular shell element based on the discrete Kirchho plate theory. The curved shell structure is approximated by piecewise at surface segments. This element uses co-rotational formulation, described in Reference [25], which is applicable to large displacements, nite rotation and small strain increment. For illustration, an element local co-ordinate system can be dened such that x3 is normal to the element plane, as shown in Figure 1. The following discussion of element formulation will be referred to this local
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x2 5 e2 1 e1

3
4 2

3 5

4 2

6 1 x1

Figure 1. Triangular element in a local system and the master element.

x3 x3 z 2 z 1
2

v2
1

v1

Figure 2. Velocity representation of ReissnerMindlin plate.

system. It is understood that a transformation to a global system is necessary for element assembly and the formation of the system equations. For the explicit nite element method, an incremental approach is used. At each time step, the strain increments are calculated from the gradients of nodal velocities and angular velocities. Then the stress increments are calculated from strain increments by the constitutive laws. For the ReissnerMindlin plate, the velocity components of a generic point in the shell is represented by the velocities and the normal rotational velocities (the angular velocities) at mid-surface, as shown in Figure 2, V1 = v1 + z! 2 V2 = v 2 z!1 V3 = v3 where z represents the distance from the generic point to the mid-surface. The normal is assumed straight, but is not necessary to keep orthogonal to the mid-surface after deformation. Here, v1 , v 2 , v3 , !1 and ! 2 are functions of (t; x; y). The transverse shear strain rates 13 and 23 depend on the velocity v3 and the normal rotational velocities !1 and ! 2 only. We also use the notation G = !1 e1 + ! 2 e2 and S = 13 e1 + 23 e2 . These variables are all expressed in co-rotational components.
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(1)

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The 3-node linear interpolation is employed for the in-plane velocities v1 and v 2 , e.g. see Reference [26], 1 = 1 2 = 3 = A 6-node quadratic interpolation is used for the angular velocities !1 and ! 2 (2 6 = 12 unknowns), !1 = !2 =
6 J =1 6 J =1 J !1 J(

(2)

; ) (3) ; )

!J J ( 2

On the master (parametric) element, shown in Figure 1, the shape functions are
1 2 3 4 5 6

= (1 )(1 2 2) = (2 1) = (2 1) =4 = 4(1 ) = 4 (1 ) (4)

For the transversal velocity v3 , the element uses 2-node Hermite cubic interpolation along each of the three sides (3 4 3 = 9 unknowns). For example, using parameter s from 0 to 1 along side 1 with nodes 1 and 2, we have
1 v3 |Side 1 = v3 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 + v3 2

+ (v3; S )1

1 1

+ (v3; S )2

1 2

(5)

= 1 3s 2 + 2s3 = 3s 2 2s3 = (s 2s 2 + s3 )L = (s 2 + s3 )L (6)

The following discrete Kirchho constraints are then imposed on a set of specic points, similar to what is described in Batoz [10]: (H1) 13 = 23 = 0 at three corner nodes (2 3 conditions); (H2) The normal components of the transverse shear strain rate of the sides (3 conditions).
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n

= 0 at three mid-points

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4

655

x3 x2 1 5

x2 v3
2

6 e2 1 e1

6 x1

n x1

Figure 3. Geometry at the side.

In addition, we require (H3) The tangential components of angular velocity !t are linear along three sides (3 conditions). In fact, condition (H1) is equivalent to the Kirchho conditions applied to the components normal to the sides, at both ends on the three sides, illustrated in Figure 3. So far, we have introduced 21 unknowns in Equations (3) and (5) and imposed 12 conditions in (H1H3) related to the transverse velocity and the angular velocities. Thus, we expect to have a reduced system with nine independent unknowns, just three per node. As a matter of fact, conditions (H1) and (H2) can be expressed as, with L to be the length of the side, @v3 @v3 = at s = 0; 0:5; 1 of each side @l L@s For side 1, with nodes 1, 6, and 2, we have, in view of (6) !n =
1 !n = 2 !n = 6 !n =

(7)

@v3 L@s @v3 L@s @v3 L@s

S=0

= (v3; S )1 = (v3; S )2
2 1 = 1:5(v3 v3 )=L 0:25((v3; S )1 + (v3; S )2 ) 1 2 0:25(!n + !n )

S=1

(8)

S=0:5 2 1 = 1:5(v3 v3 )=L

Condition (H3) states that the tangential component of the angular velocity at mid-side node equal to the average angular velocity of the end nodes, i.e.
6 1 2 !S = (!S + !S )=2

(9)

Using Equations (8) and (9), with the 2-D vector form, we have
6 6 6 G6 = !1 e1 + !6 e2 = !S eS + !n en 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 = 0:5(!S + !S )es + (1:5(v3 v3 )=L 0:25(!n + !n ))en 2 1 1 2 = 0:5(G1 + G2 ) + (1:5(v3 v3 )=L 0:75(!n + !n ))en

(10)

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Due to the orientation of the element, a transformation is introduced, shown in Figure 3 en = e1 sin e2 cos cos = (x2 x1 )=L sin = (y2 y1 )=L
1 2 Hence, by plugging (11) into (10), G6 can be expressed in terms of G1 , G2 , v3 and v3 6 1 2 2 1 !1 = 0:5(!1 + !1 ) + 1:5(v3 v3 ) sin =L 1 2 0:75((!1 + !1 ) sin2 + (!1 + !2 ) sin cos ) 2 2 2 1 !6 = 0:5(!1 + !2 ) 1:5(v3 v3 ) cos =L 2 2 2 1 2 +0:75((!1 + !1 ) sin cos (!1 + !2 ) cos 2 ) 2 2

(11)

(12)

G4 and G5 can be treated similarly with a permutation. Therefore, the angular velocities at all

the mid-side nodes are eliminated from the unknowns list and it results in a condensed form of interpolation with nine unknowns, the nodal values (!1 ; ! 2 ; v3 ) at three corner nodes. We denote
1 2 3 1 2 3 R = {k } = (!1 ; !1 ; !1 ; !1 ; !2 ; !3 ; v3 ; v3 ; v3 ) 2 2 2

(13)

Recall the interpolation in Equation (3), we end with a condensed form, !1 = !2 =

6 J =1 6 J =1 J !1 J(

; ) = ; ) =

K=1 J =1 9 6

K k H1 J K k H2 J

(14)
J

!J J ( 2

K=1 J =1

It is a simple exercise to verify

1 2 3

+ 0:5( + 0:5( + 0:5(

5 4 4

+ + +

6 ) 1 6 ) 2 5 ) 3

(15)

Hence,
{
J =1; 6 } = (1 ; 2 ; 3 ; 4; 5; 6)

(16)

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We summarize with the following condensation coe cients H -matrix:

[I3 ] [O ] K (H1 J )K=1; 9; J =1; 6 = 3 [O3 ] [O3 ] KJ (H2 )K=1; 9; J =1; 6 = [I3 ] [O3 ] SS1 SS1 SC1

SS2

0
SS2

SC2 0 SC2 SL2 0

SL2

SC1
SL1

SL1

SS3 0 SC3 SC3 0 SL3 SL3 0

SS3

(17a)

SC1

SC2 0 SC2
CC2

SC3

SC3

SC1
CC1 CC1 CL1 CL1

0
CC2 CL2

0 CL2

0 CC3 CC3 0 CL3 CL3

(17b)

where I3 and O3 are the third-order identity matrix and zero matrix, respectively. Other parameters are dened below, with i the orientation angle of side i as shown in Figure 3 and Li the length of side i, SSi = 0:75 sin2 CCi = 0:75 cos SCi = 0:75 sin
2 i i i

cos

(18)

SLi = 1:5 sin i =Li CLi = 1:5 cos i =Li

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The above su ces for the implementation in the explicit software, without the need to form a sti ness matrix. At each time step, we calculate increments of deformation, strain and stress of the element. The nodal force and moment are obtained by numerical integrations through the thickness. Due to the use of higher-order interpolation, quadrature with multiple integration points for in-plane integration is recommended. As well known, one point (at centre) scheme can only accurately integrate up to the linear polynomials. A 3-point scheme can accurately integrate up to the complete second-degree polynomials. A 2-point scheme can accurately integrate up to the linear polynomials, but nearly accurate for the second-degree polynomials. Preliminary results of DKT elements using 2-point integration are presented in Reference [27]. Thus, the membrane part can use one point scheme and the bending part can use 3-point or 2-point scheme.

3. NUMERICAL EXAMPLES 3.1. Twisted beam The twisted beam example is often used to verify the ability of the shell element to obtain correct response when the shell is warped, e.g. Reference [28]. The example, dened in Reference [29], is described in Figure 4 with a 12 2( 2) mesh. A specied load is applied at one end and clamped boundary condition is imposed at the other end. So, it is like a cantilever beam. The linear static solution of displacement at the tip is 0.005424, the maximum of dynamic response at the tip is to be double. The computed displacement time history of the tip point, by using various types of elements with the 12 2 mesh, is shown in Figure 5(a). It is observed that DKT element and quadrilateral QPH element [30] give the same accurate results. As described in Reference [30], a drill projection is used for QPH element. Without this projection, the result will diverge immediately. The 4-node BT shell with reduced integration [1], commonly used in crashworthiness analysis, does not give answer to this example. The reason is mainly the hour glassing caused by warping due to quadrilateral meshing of the curved surface. In this example, warping exists everywhere. It should be noted
clamped

Length =12.0 Width =1.1 Thickness = 0.32 E = 2.9e7 = 0.22 = 2.5e-4 F= 1.0

Figure 4. Twisted beam.

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Figure 5. Displacement at the end point of the twisted beam: (a) solutions from various elements; and (b) solutions from DKT elements with various element sizes.

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Radius = 10.0 Thickness = 0.04 E = 6.825e7 = 0.3 = 2.5e-4 F = 1.0 F

Figure 6. Hemispherical shell.

that current versions of non-linear software use the projection given in Reference [28] and do not su er this anomalous behaviour. The 3-node C 0 ReissnerMindlin plate element, with linear interpolation for all components of displacements and normal rotations, is too sti . DKT shell performs very well without the drill projection. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 5(b), the result from 12 2( 2) DKT elements is accurate enough in comparison to a rened 24 4( 2) DKT mesh. In fact, the result from a very coarse mesh with only 3 2 DKT elements is quite close to the right answer. 3.2. Hemispherical shell The hemispherical shell example is used to assess the ability of the element to handle nite rotations and large rigid body motions. The example is described in Figure 6, see Reference [29] for more details. At x = 0 and y = 0, symmetry boundary conditions are imposed. Constant loads are applied at two points as shown in Figure 6. The static solution of the displacement at the loading points is 0.0924. We expect 0.1848 for the dynamic solution. The results from several types of elements using a 3 4 4 mesh are shown in Figure 7. The 3-node C 0 plate element is too sti and the BT element does not give right answer, due to warping from quadrilateral meshing of the spherical surface, similar to the previous example. The DKT element performs better than QPH element for this case. 3.3. Hyperbolic paraboloidal shell Chapelle and Bathe [31] have studied the hyperbolic paraboloidal shell with the DKT bending element combined with the constant strain facet-shell element and concluded that the element does not converge for this example for small thicknesses. We consider a similar hyperbolic paraboloid surface dened by z = x2 y2 , [0:56x; y60:5], which is clamped at one side (x = 0:5) and subjected to a uniform load. The surface has a portion with positive curvature
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Figure 7. Displacement of the hemispherical shell.

and a portion with negative curvature. For thickness reduced from t = e-2 to e-3, the mass density and load are scaled, cf. Reference [32]. Figure 8 shows the triangular mesh with 18 18 2 elements which was used; the other meshes were obtained by uniform subdivision of the quadrilaterals into four quadrilaterals, followed by a split of the quadrilaterals into two triangles. Figure 9 shows the time histories of the de ection at the mid-point of the free edge (x = 0:5; y = 0) calculated by a set of rened meshes for both thicknesses. It is observed that the DKT element converges quickly for both cases. Table I gives the maximum displacements for various meshes and thicknesses. Again, the results appear to converge quite well. 3.4. Cylindrical panel under impulsive loading A 120 cylindrical panel is clamped at both sides and hinged at both curved ends. The panel is subject to an impulsive loading, applied uniformly to a portion of the panel. The loading condition is dened as initial velocity in the radial direction. Due to symmetry, only half of the panel is modelled. The geometry and material parameters are presented in Figure 10. A Mises yield condition is used with isotropic hardening. The problem is used to test shell elements performance for large elasticplastic deformation. The experimental result is reported in References [33, 34]. Three quadrature points are used through the thickness. Displacements on the crown line, at half span and three quarters span calculated by DKT elements with several uniform meshes are shown in Figure 11(a). It is observed that the results by a ne mesh and a further rened mesh are very close. The maximum displacement at mid span by a mesh with 24 64( 2) DKT elements is about 1.24, whereas it stays nearly the same by
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Figure 8. Triangular mesh for the hyperbolic paraboloid.

a rened mesh with 48 128( 2) elements. This is close to the experimental data near 1.25, cf. References [33, 34]. The maximum displacement at three quarters span by DKT elements is about 0.64, whereas the experimental result in Reference [33] is around 0.72. For this example, when mesh is ne, the results by BT elements, shown in Figure 11(b), are very close to those by DKT elements. In this example, large deformation occurs, but without surface contact. The computer time is almost entirely in nodal force evaluation of the element procedure. The CPU time per cycle per element using DKT elements is compared to BT quadratic elements in Table II. The results are given for a set of rened meshes. The cost of BT element is about 5070% of the DKT element using 3-point in-plane integration. When using 2-point integration, the cost of DKT element is reduced to 6585%. 3.5. Crash can The axial crash simulation for an aluminium component, the crash can, is studied to compare the performance of DKT elements and quadrilateral elements in dynamic large deformation applications. The crash can impacts into a rigid barrier with an initial velocity of 15 mm=ms and an attached mass of 500 kg. Convolutions are designed to lead the large deformation into a desired progressive collapse mode. The component geometry and the deformation after 15 ms impact are shown in Figure 12. The internal energy calculated from several uniformly rened meshes of DKT elements and BT quadrilateral elements is shown in Figure 13. When examining the di erence in internal energy calculated from coarse meshes
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Figure 9. Displacement at mid-point of the free edge (x = 0:5; y = 0): (a) t = e-2; and (b) t = e-3.

and ne meshes, we observe that the results of DKT elements have less di erence than those of BT elements. Regarding element size, the result of a triangular mesh from split of a quads mesh is comparable to a quadrilateral mesh from uniform renement. In this case, rened
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Table I. Maximum displacement at the mid-edge point for hyperbolic Paraboloidal shell.
Thickness 18 18 2 mesh 36 36 2 mesh 72 72 2 mesh 144 144 2 mesh e-2 4.3877 4.5137 4.5782 4.6035 e-5 e-5 e-5 e-5 e-3 3.0788 3.0777 3.1176 3.1455 e-5 e-5 e-5 e-5 e-4 2.6605 e-5 2.5966 e-5 2.5877 e-5

Figure 10. Cylindrical panel.

quadrilateral mesh (one-to-four splitting) has about twice as many elements of the triangular mesh. The barrier impact forces calculated by DKT and BT elements of coarse meshes and ne meshes are shown in Figure 14 for a comparison. It is observed that the results from these two elements with ne meshes agree reasonably well. Figure 14 also presents the results by DKT elements using 2-point in-plane integration. It is found that for ne meshes, the results of 3-point integration and 2-point integration for early time are close. However, at later time, erratic divergences occur. It appears that there is a certain chaotic behaviour due to severe contact. The comparison of CPU time per cycle per element, from a set of rened meshes, is listed in Table III. In this example, severe contact occurs, which consumes a large portion of the computer time. The overall cost of BT element is about 6070% of DKT element using 3-point integration. The cost of DKT element using 2-point integration is about 7580% of the DKT element using 3-point integration.
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Figure 11. Displacement of the cylindrical panel at half span and three quarters span: (a) by DKT and elements; and (b) by BT elements.

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Table II. CPU time per cycle per element ( s)cylindrical panel.
DKT BT Quads Number of elements 1 2 3 4 96 384 1536 6144 CPU time 8.125 3.542 2.813 3.465 Number of elements 192 768 3072 12288 CPU time 3-point quadrature 7.750 5.573 5.719 5.736 2-point quadrature 6.583 4.458 3.688 4.542 Ratio of CPU time BT/DKT 3 1.048 0.636 0.492 0.604 DKT 2/DKT 3 0.849 0.800 0.645 0.792

Figure 12. Deformation of the crash can.

3.6. Component rail The axial impact of a steel component rail is another example of large deformation of transient dynamics. Similar impact conditions as of the example in Section 3.5 are applied, except that a mass of 1000 kg is used now. The geometry and the deformation after 20 ms impact are shown
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Figure 13. Internal energy of the crash can: (a) results from DKT meshes; and (b) results from BT quads meshes.

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Figure 14. Barrier impact force of the crash can: (a) results from the coarse meshes; and (b) results from the ne meshes.

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Table III. CPU time per cycle per element ( s)crash can.
DKT BT Quads Number of elements 1 2 3 4 565 2260 9040 36160 CPU time 4.497 4.655 5.111 5.258 Number of elements 1027 4108 16432 65728 CPU time 3-point quadrature 7.279 7.379 7.417 7.347 2-point quadrature 5.558 5.882 5.951 5.946 Ratio of CPU time BT/DKT 3 0.618 0.631 0.689 0.716 DKT 2/DKT 3 0.764 0.797 0.802 0.809

Figure 15. Deformation of the rail.

in Figure 15. The internal energy calculated from several rened meshes of DKT elements and BT quadrilateral elements is shown in Figure 16. The barrier impact force is shown in Figure 17. The coarse triangular mesh used in this example is split from the quadrilateral mesh in a one-to-four cross pattern. All rened meshes are generated from the coarse meshes
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Figure 16. Internal energy of the rail: (a) results from DKT meshes; and (b) results from BT quads meshes.

by further splitting one into four. Therefore, the triangular meshes have almost same number of elements as the correspondingly rened quadrilateral meshes. It is observed from Figure 16, for the quadrilateral meshes, the di erence in internal energy from a coarse mesh and the ner meshes is signicant. The di erence from triangular meshes is less. On the other hand, for
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Figure 17. Barrier impact force of the rail: (a) results from coarse meshes; and (b) results from ne meshes.

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Table IV. CPU time per cycle per element ( s)rail.

DKT BT Quads Number of elements 1 2 3 4 5 440 1760 7040 28160 112640 CPU time 4.121 3.934 4.698 5.093 4.886 Number of elements 434 1736 6944 27776 111104 CPU time 3-point quadrature 7.408 6.711 6.830 6.993 6.545 2-point quadrature 5.984 4.991 5.425 5.701 5.337 Ratio of CPU time BT/DKT 3 0.556 0.586 0.688 0.728 0.743 DKT 2/DKT 3 0.808 0.744 0.794 0.815 0.815

ne meshes, the di erences in the results for both internal energy and barrier impact force from quadrilateral mesh and triangular mesh become quite small. Figure 17 also presents the results by DKT elements using 2-point in-plane integration. It is found, that for ne meshes, the results of 3-point integration and 2-point integration are close for early time. However, for all cases, late time results do not appear to converge, probably because of e ects of discrete contact. The comparison of CPU time per cycle per element, from a set of rened meshes, is listed in Table IV. In this example, severe contact happens, which consumes a portion of the computer time. The overall cost of BT element is about 5570% of DKT element using 3-point integration. The cost of DKT element using 2-point integration is about 7580% of the DKT element using 3-point integration.

4. CONCLUDING REMARKS The implementation of a 3-node discrete Kirchho element in explicit nite element software was described. Simplied formulas that reduce computer time are given. It is shown that the resulting element is comparable in running time to the BT one-point quadrature element. The examples of a twisted beam and a hemispherical shell showed that the DKT element had accurate solution whereas the BT quadrilateral element did not give right solution, due to warping induced by quadrilateral meshing, and the simple 3-node C 0 element was too sti . The example of a hyperbolic paraboloid clamped at one edge, subject to uniform loading showed that the DKT element converged quickly, even with reduced thickness. Elasticplastic deformation of a cylindrical panel subject to impulsive loading, and two examples of component axial impact demonstrated the applications of the DKT elements to non-linear dynamic problems. The comparison with the quadrilateral BT element showed that, from coarse mesh to ne mesh, the di erence of the internal energy calculated by DKT elements was less than that by BT quadrilateral elements. It was also observed that the results by ne meshes of DKT elements, both using 3-point in-plane integration or 2-point integration, and BT quadrilateral elements were close. Triangular elements are very attractive to industry because they simplify meshing. The accuracy of the results is comparable to the BelytschkoTsay [1] in situations when the later
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is convergent, and comparable to the physically stabilized QPH [30]. Running time is only slightly greater. Thus, the performance of the element is quite promising.
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28. Belytschko T, Wong BL, Chiang HY. Advances in one-point quadrature shell elements. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 1992; 96:93 107. 29. MacNeal RH, Harder RL. A proposed standard set of problems to test nite element accuracy. Finite Element in Analysis and Design 1985; 1:3 20. 30. Belytschko T, Leviathan I. Physical stabilization of 4-node shell element with one-point quadrature. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 1994; 113:321350. 31. Chapelle D, Bathe KJ. The Finite Element Analysis of ShellsFundamentals. Springer: Berlin, 2003. 32. Wu SR. ReissnerMindlin plate theory for elastodynamics. Journal of Applied Mathematics 2004; 2004: 179 189. 33. Balmer HA, Witmer EA. Theoreticalexperimental correlation of large dynamic and permanent deformatins of impulsively loaded simple structures. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aeroelastic and Structures Research Laboratory, FDL-TDR-64-108, July 1964. 34. Morino L, Leech JW, Witmer EA. An improved numerical calculation technique for large elasticplastic transient deformations of thin shells. Part 2evaluation and applications. Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions of ASME 1971; 38:429 436.

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