Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

This paper presents a non-linear finite element analysis for the elasto-plastic behaviour of thick/thin shells and plates with large rotations and damage effects. The refined shell theory given by Voyiadjis and Woelke (Int. J. Solids Struct. 2004; 41:3747–3769) provides a set of shell constitutive equations. Numerical implementation of the shell theory leading to the development of the C0 quadrilateral shell element (Woelke and Voyiadjis, Shell element based on the refined theory for thick spherical shells. 2006, submitted) is used here as an effective tool for a linear elastic analysis of shells. The large rotation elasto-plastic model for shells presented by Voyiadjis and Woelke (General non-linear finite element analysis of thick plates and shells. 2006, submitted) is enhanced here to account for the damage effects due to microvoids, formulated within the framework of a micromechanical damage model. The evolution equation of the scalar porosity parameter as given by Duszek-Perzyna and Perzyna (Material Instabilities: Theory and Applications, ASME Congress, Chicago, AMD-Vol. 183/MD-50, 9–11 November 1994; 59–85) is reduced here to describe the most relevant damage effects for isotropic plates and shells, i.e. the growth of voids as a function of the plastic flow. The anisotropic damage effects, the influence of the microcracks and elastic damage are not considered in this paper. The damage modelled through the evolution of porosity is incorporated directly into the yield function, giving a generalized and convenient loading surface expressed in terms of stress resultants and stress couples. A plastic node method (Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 1982; 34:1089–1104) is used to derive the large rotation, elasto-plastic-damage tangent stiffness matrix. Some of the important features of this paper are that the elastic stiffness matrix is derived explicitly, with all the integrals calculated analytically (Woelke and Voyiadjis, Shell element based on the refined theory for thick spherical shells. 2006, submitted). In addition, a non-layered model is adopted in which integration through the thickness is not necessary. Consequently, the elasto-plastic-damage stiffness matrix is also given explicitly and numerical integration is not performed. This makes this model consistent mathematically, accurate for a variety of applications and very inexpensive from the point of view of computer power and time.