A Stress Approach Model of Moderately Thick, Homogeneous Shells

This paper presents the theoretical development of a new model of shells called SAM-H (Stress Approach Model of Homogeneous shells) and adapted for linear elastic shells, from thin to moderately thick ones. The model starts from an original stress polynomial approximation which involves the generalized forces and verifies the 3D equilibrium equations and the stress boundary conditions at the faces of the shell. Hellinger-Reissner functional and Reissner’s variational method are applied to determine the generalized fields and equations. The generalized forces and displacements are the same as those obtained in a classical, moderately thick shell model (CS model). The equilibrium and constitutive equations have some differences from those of a CS model, mainly in consideration of applied stress vectors at the upper and lower faces of the shell and the stiffness matrices. Another feature of the SAM-H model is the inclusion of the Poisson’s effect of out-of-plane normal stresses on in-plane strains. As a first application example to test the accuracy of the model, the case of a pressurized hollow sphere is considered. The analytical results of stresses and displacements of the SAM-H and CS models are compared to those of an exact 3D resolution. In this example, SAM-H model proves to be much more accurate than the CS model and its approximation of the normal out-of-plane stress is very precise. Finally, an implementation of the SAM-H model equations in a finite element software is performed and a case study is analyzed to show the advantages of using the SAM-H model.