Development of Membrane, Plate and Flat Shell Elements in Java

• Main Author: Kansara, Kaushalkumar
• Other Authors: Civil Engineering
• Format: Others
• Published: Virginia Tech 2011
• Subjects: finite element analysis; membrane; Java; flat shell; plate
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/9936; http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05142004-234133

The development of triangular and quadrilateral membrane, plate and shell elements in Java using the object oriented programming technique is presented. The membrane elements developed are the constant strain triangle (CST) element and the four node isoparametric quadrilateral membrane element. The plate bending elements developed are the discrete Kirchoff triangular (DKT) element and discrete Kirchoff quadrilateral (DKQ) element. The flat shell elements are developed by super imposing the stiffness of the membrane element and plate bending element. A finite element analysis program is also developed to check the accuracy of the developed elements. The program is developed using the object oriented programming approach as an alternative to traditional procedural programming. Several test structures are analyzed using the developed program for each developed element and the results are compared with those obtained from the commercial finite element analysis program SAP 2000. The results indicate that all elements give accurate displacements. However, there were significant differences in stresses for the shell elements, which can be attributable to the approximate approach in these elements to model the drilling degree of freedom. === Master of Science