A shell finite element for the general analysis of circular cylindrical shells

The work in this paper is devoted to the development of a strain based cylindrical element based on shallow shell formulations. The developed element is rectangular in plan and has the only five essential degrees of freedom at each corner node. The displacement fields of the element satisfy the exact requirement of rigid body modes. The efficiency of the element is demonstrated, by applying it to the linear and geometrically nonlinear analysis of shell structures. The opportunity is also taken to test the suitability of the element to the calculation of the natural frequencies of cylindrical shells. Results obtained by the present element art: compared with those available in the literature. Good convergence characteristics and accurate results are obtained fi-om the present element.