Novel four-node membrane element with rotational degrees of freedom

For a traditional membrane element, the introduction of a vertical rotational freedom of degree may exponentially increase the displacement and greatly improve the calculation precision and the element performance. Two excellent four-node membrane elements are proposed for the membrane structure and the shear wall of high-rise structure. The results of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation indicate that the two membrane elements both possess a displacement field in which linear displacement and rotational displacement are mutually independent, which results in an easy transition between one-dimension element and two-dimension element and makes the program realization rather simple. Numerical results show that the proposed displacement field not only accords with the practical situation better than others, but also reduces the calculation time.