Implementation of assumed strain degenerated shell elements

Abstract The implementation of the new degenerated shell elements with assumed transverse shear and membrane strains is described in this paper. An explanation of locking behaviour and also the location of sampling points for the assumed strain fields is given in the present work. In the formulation of the new elements, assumed transverse shear strains in the natural coordinate system are used to overcome the shear locking problem and assumed membrane strains in the orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system are applied to avoid membrane locking behaviour. Both linear and nonlinear problems are considered.