TY - JOUR
T1 - The bending strip method for isogeometric analysis of Kirchhoff-Love shell structures comprised of multiple patches
AU - Kiendl, J.
AU - Bazilevs, Y.
AU - Hsu, M. C.
AU - Wüchner, R.
AU - Bletzinger, K. U.
PY - 2010/8
Y1 - 2010/8
N2 - In this paper we present an isogeometric formulation for rotation-free thin shell analysis of structures comprised of multiple patches. The structural patches are C1- or higher-order continuous in the interior, and are joined with C0-continuity. The Kirchhoff-Love shell theory that relies on higher-order continuity of the basis functions is employed in the patch interior as presented in Kiendl et al. [36]. For the treatment of patch boundaries, a method is developed in which strips of fictitious material with unidirectional bending stiffness and zero membrane stiffness are added at patch interfaces. The direction of bending stiffness is chosen to be transverse to the patch interface. This choice leads to an approximate satisfaction of the appropriate kinematic constraints at patch interfaces without introducing additional stiffness to the shell structure. The attractive features of the method include simplicity of implementation and direct applicability to complex, multi-patch shell structures. The good performance of the bending strip method is demonstrated on a set of benchmark examples. Application to a wind turbine rotor subjected to realistic wind loads is also shown. Extension of the bending strip approach to the coupling of solids and shells is proposed and demonstrated numerically.
AB - In this paper we present an isogeometric formulation for rotation-free thin shell analysis of structures comprised of multiple patches. The structural patches are C1- or higher-order continuous in the interior, and are joined with C0-continuity. The Kirchhoff-Love shell theory that relies on higher-order continuity of the basis functions is employed in the patch interior as presented in Kiendl et al. [36]. For the treatment of patch boundaries, a method is developed in which strips of fictitious material with unidirectional bending stiffness and zero membrane stiffness are added at patch interfaces. The direction of bending stiffness is chosen to be transverse to the patch interface. This choice leads to an approximate satisfaction of the appropriate kinematic constraints at patch interfaces without introducing additional stiffness to the shell structure. The attractive features of the method include simplicity of implementation and direct applicability to complex, multi-patch shell structures. The good performance of the bending strip method is demonstrated on a set of benchmark examples. Application to a wind turbine rotor subjected to realistic wind loads is also shown. Extension of the bending strip approach to the coupling of solids and shells is proposed and demonstrated numerically.
KW - Isogeometric analysis
KW - Kirchhoff-Love theory
KW - Multiple patches
KW - Rotation-free shells
KW - Shell-solid coupling
KW - Wind turbine rotor
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954758965&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cma.2010.03.029
DO - 10.1016/j.cma.2010.03.029
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77954758965
SN - 0045-7825
VL - 199
SP - 2403
EP - 2416
JO - Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering
JF - Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering
IS - 37-40
ER -