Free Vibrations of Plates and Shells with an Isogeometric RM Shell Element

Abstract

Free vibration analysis of plates and shells is carried out by using isogeometric approach. For this purpose, an isogeometric shell element based on Reissner-Mindlin (RM) shell theory is developed. Non-uniform rational B-spline surface (NURBS) definition is introduced to represent the geometry of shell and it is also used to derive all terms required in the isogeometric element formulation. New anchor positions are proposed to calculate the shell normal vector. Gauss integration rule is used for the formation of stiffness and mass matrices. The proposed shell element is then used to examine vibrational behaviours of plate and shell structures. From numerical results, it is found to be that reliable natural frequencies and associated mode shapes can be predicted by the present isogeometric RM shell element.