An efficient four node degenerated shell element based on the assumed covariant strain

This paper proposes a new four node degenerated shell element. In the formulation of the new element, the assumed covariant shear strains are used to avoid the shear locking problem, and the assumed covariant membrane strains are applied to alleviate the membrane locking problem and also to improve the membrane bending performance. The assumed covariant strains are obtained from the covariant strain field defined with respect to the element natural coordinate system. This formulation enables us to obtain a shell element, which does not produce spurious singular modes, avoids locking phenomena, and excels in calculation efficiency. Several examples in this paper indicate that, despite its simplicity, the achieved accuracy and convergence are satisfactory.