Static Analysis of Curved Shell Structures by Using a Meshfree Method

Abstract

Shell structure is very popular in vehicle body design and building construction. Curved shell structures are shaped to transmit external forces by tensile, compressive that act on their surfaces. In this paper, a meshfree method is developed to analyze the static behavior of the curved shell based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). By using the FSDT formulation, the curved shell is allowed to have the transverse shear strain. For meshfree method, the radial point interpolation method (RPIM) is chosen in this study due to the satisfaction of Kronecker delta property, which allows direct imposition of the essential boundary conditions. The RPIM is employed to interpolate the geometry of the curved shell and the field variables. To investigate shell structure in meshfree concept, a convected coordinate system is introduced. By using the mapping technique, an arbitrary curved shell in 3D space (global coordinate system) is expanded in 2D space (convected coordinate system). The numerical computation is conducted in this convected coordinate and then map back to the global coordinate to obtain the solution. Many numerical examples are performed in the paper, the obtained results are compared with other available reference solutions to show the accuracy and ability of the method.