Adaptive finite element analysis of stiffened shells

Abstract This paper presents an adaptive finite element analysis method for shells with stiffeners. The key features of the method are the integrally stiffened shell finite elements and automatic mesh generation of three-dimensional quadrilateral elements. The scheme for the generation of a quadrilateral element mesh for stiffened shells is combined with a sophisticated error estimate and an effective mesh refinement strategy established at an element level in order to complete the adaptive analysis. The stiffeners in the present studies may be either discrete stiffeners, dense stiffeners or a combination of both discrete and dense stiffeners. The element mesh layout is not influenced by the pattern of the stiffeners. Numerical examples are shown to illustrate the principles and procedure of the present adaptive analysis. © 1997 Elsevier Science Limited.

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