Plate vs.

Shell Structures
■ A plate is a three dimensional body with
■ one of the plate dimensions much smaller than the other two
■ the curvature of the plate mid-surface in the reference configuration is zero

mid-surface

■ A shell is a three dimensional body with

■ one of the shell dimensions is much smaller than the other two
■ the curvature of the shell mid-surface in the current configuration is non-zero

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 Reduced vs. Full Model
■ It is important to consider the loading as well as the slenderness of
the structure before classifying it as a plate or shell

plate assumption not valid

■ However if we are interested only in the global behavior local details

may be neglected
■ Principle of St. Venant
■ Note this is a consequence of the ellipticity of the elasticity equations

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 Membrane vs. Bending Response
■ For a plate membrane and bending response are decoupled

■ For practical applications the membrane and bending response can be investigated
independently and later combined (two-surface model)

■ The membrane response can be investigated using the techniques introduced in 3D7

■ For shells and problems involving large deflections the membrane

and bending response are coupled

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 Plate Theories
■ In analogy to beams there are several different plate theories

thick thin very thin

L/t ~5 to ~10 ~5 to ~100 > ~100

characteristics with transverse no transverse shear geometrically non-

shear deformations deformations linear

plate theory Reissner, Mindlin Kirchhoff von Karman

beam theory Timoshenko Euler, Bernoulli

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 Kirchhoff Plate
■ Key assumptions
■ Geometrically linear: small strains, small displacements
■ Linear elastic material (Hooke)
■ Points which lie on the mid-surface normal remain on the
the mid-surface normal during the deformation
■ Plane sections remain plane
■ Out-of-plane shear deformations are zero Gustav Kirchhoff

■ The stresses normal to the mid-plane are much smaller than the stresses in plane
■ In the Mansfield book this plate theory is attributed to Lagrange

■ Kinematic assumptions
■ In-plane displacements

■ Out-of-plane displacements

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 Kirchhoff Plate: Weak Form -1-
■ In analogy to Bernoulli beams

■ Weak form of equilibrium /

Principle of virtual displacements
■ Internal virtual work

■ Bending moments:

■ External virtual work (e.g. distributed surface load)

For other type of external loadings see TJR Hughes book.

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 Kirchhoff Plate: Weak Form -2-
■ Principle of virtual work for the plate (summation convention in place)

■ Constitutive equation (Hooke’s law)

■ Plane stress assumption for thin plates

■ Integration over the thickness yields

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 Tensor Product Interpolation -1-
■ 2D shape functions can be constructed from 1D shape functions

■ Linear Langrange shape functions - 1D

■ Linear Lagrange shape functions - 2D

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 Tensor Product Interpolation -2-
■ Shape functions for triangles can be generated by degeneration

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 Hermite Interpolation - 2D
■ The 1D Hermite interpolant was a cubic polynomial. The equivalent 2D
element is the Adini-Clough quadrilateral (1961)

monomials

■ Consider a boundary between two elements

■ The interpolation restricted to the edge I-J with η=0 is

■ 8 unknowns but only at the vertices known

■ can be discontinuous

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 C1 - Continuous Quadrilateral Element
■ Bogner-Fox-Schmidt interpolation (1966)

■ There are now 8 parameters on the edge to generate

a C1-continuous function
monomials

■ Problems:
■ Physical meaning of cross derivatives not clear
■ At boundaries it is not clear how to prescribe the cross derivative

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 Smooth Surfaces in Computer Graphics -1-
■ Smooth surfaces are also crucial in computer graphics, gaming and
geometric design

Fifa 07, computer game

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 Splines - Piecewise Polynomial Curves -1-
■ Splines are piecewise polynomial curves for representing smooth curves
■ Cubic splines

■ Each cubic spline is composed of four cubic polynomials; neighboring curve segments are C2 continuous
connected

■ B-spline shape functions

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 Splines - Piecewise Polynomial Curves -2-
■ The degrees of freedom for one element are its nodal displacements plus
the nodal displacements of its neighbors

■ The shape functions are overlapping; nodes 2, 3 and 4 are shared both elements

■ Displacements of the nodes are the only degrees of freedom (no rotational degrees of freedom)

■ Boundaries require special attention

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 Subdivision Curves
■ Subdivision schemes construct smooth curves through a limiting procedure
of repeated refinement

initial polygon 1st subdivision step 2nd subdivision step

■ At each step the polygon is refined and the nodal positions are recomputed as averages of the
coarse polygon nodal positions

■ Using a suitable choice of weights produces a smooth curve in the limit. The following choice of
weights leads to a cubic spline

for newly created nodes for existing nodes

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 Case Study: Morphogenesis
■ Morphogenesis is the processes whereby a group of cells develops
into an organized multi-cellular structure (fruit fly in this study)
■ Dorsal closure is the mechanism by which the embryonic skin of the fruit fly knits itself
together to protect its innards from the outside world

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 Tensor Product B-Spline Surfaces
■ A b-spline surface can be constructed from b-spline curves
■ Cubic b-spline surface

■ Tensor product b-spline surfaces are only possible over “regular”

patches. However, there are subdivision schemes for “irregular”
patches as well

regular patch irregular patch

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 Catmull-Clark Subdivision - Masks

mask for a face node

mask for an existing node

mask for an edge node

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 Catmull-Clark Subdivision
■ For regular patches Catmull-Clark subdivision converges to a cubic
b-spline surface

■ It can be shown that Catmull-Clark converges for irregular patches

to a smooth surface

initial control mesh smooth limit surface

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 Loop Subdivision - Triangular Meshes

initial control mesh smooth limit surface

1st subdivision step 2nd subdivision step

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 Loop Subdivision - Masks
■ Mask for an existing node

Local connectivity dependent weight

■ Mask for an edge node

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 Subdivision Interpolation
■ Loop’s scheme leads on a regular patch to a quartic box-splines

■ Loop’s scheme leads on an irregular patch to a smooth surface

J K

regular patch for element J irregular patch for element K

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 Irregular Patches
control mesh for an irregular patch once subdivided patch

■ Each subdivision step creates three new regular patches; in each regular
patch box-spline shape functions can be used
■ It is possible to evaluate the shape functions at the quadrature points

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 Clamped Square Plate

c la m p e Length 10.0
ed
c la m p d Thickness 0.1
Young’s modulus 10920.0
Poisson’s ratio 0.3
c la m ed
ped p
c la m

deformed control mesh deformed limit surface

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