Finite Element Techniques for the thin shell Deployable Space Structures
Abstract: Rotation-free finite element analysis While the majority of analytical analyses of plates and shells rely on Kirchhoff-Love (KL)formulations put forth for thin plates and shells, modern finite element formulations draw upon the Reissner-Mindlin (RM) theory for moderately thick shells. The finite element formulations based on RM theory treat translations and annotations as independent variables