A nine nodes solid-shell finite element with enhanced pinching stress

In this paper we present a low-order solid-shell element formulation—having only displacement degrees of freedom (DOFs), i.e., without rotational DOFs. The element has an additional middle node, that allows efficient and accurate analyses of shell structures using elements at extremely high aspect ratio. The formulation is based on the Hu–Washizu variational principle leading to a novel enhancing strain and stress tensor that renders the...