EXPLICIT SIMULATIONS WITH REDUCED INTEGRATION SOLID-SHELL ELEMENTS: STABILIZATION AND SELECTIVE MASS SCALING

Explicit approaches are usually preferred for the simulation of thin walled structural problems, which are often highly nonlinear due to large deformations and possible material inelasticity. Solid-shell elements can describe the correct thickness geometry and are therefore more suitable than standard shell elements for the implementation of complex 3D material models. However, their poor kinematic formulation requires computationally expensive corrections which suggest the use of reduced integration with hourglass stabilization. Furthermore, a high element maximum eigenfrequency is implied by the small thickness, leading to overly small stable time-steps. These two issues are addressed in this paper where a stabilized reduced integration solid-shell element and a selective mass scaling technique for the reduction of the maximum eigenfrequency are proposed.