The new flat shell element DKMGQ-CR in linear and geometric nonlinear analysis

Geometric nonlinear performance simulation and analysis of complex modern buildings and industrial products require high-performance shell elements. Balancing multiple aspects of performance in the one geometric nonlinear analysis element remains challenging. We present a new shell element, flat shell DKMGQ-CR (Co-rotational Discrete Kirchhoff-Mindlin Generalized Conforming Quadrilateral), for linear and geometric nonlinear analysis of both thick and thin shells. The DKMGQ-CR shell element was developed by combining the advantages of high-performance membrane and plate elements in a unified coordinate system and introducing the co-rotational formulation to adapt to large deformation analysis. The effectiveness of linear and geometric nonlinear analysis by DKMGQ-CR is verified through the tests of several classical numerical benchmarks. The computational results show that the proposed new element adapts to mesh distortion and effectively alleviates shear and membrane locking problems in linear and geometric nonlinear analysis. Furthermore, the DKMGQ-CR demonstrates high performance in analyzing thick and thin shells. The proposed element DKMGQ-CR is expected to provide an accurate, efficient, and convenient tool for the geometric nonlinear analysis of shells.