Analysis of elasto-plastic thin-shell structures using layered plastic modeling and absolute nodal coordinate formulation

A new elasto-plastic thin-shell finite element of the absolute nodal coordinate formulation allowing for large deformation and finite rotation is proposed based on the Kirchhoff–Love theory and layered plastic model. The von Mises yield criterion of plane-stress with linear isotropic hardening is adopted in constitutive description of elasto-plastic material. Owing to the plane-stress constraint, special treatment should be given to the stress update algorithm for plasticity. To accommodate the plasticity formulation, the Gauss-point layered integration is inserted into the thickness of the element to produce the internal force. Then, the Jacobian of internal forces is deduced by deriving the consistent elasto-plastic tangent moduli. To accurately track the load–displacement equilibrium path in the buckling analysis of elasto-plastic thin shells, the arc-length method is used. The dynamics of the thin shells is also studied by using the generalized-alpha algorithm. Finally, several static and dynamic examples are presented to verify the accuracy of the proposed formulation.