The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

3-9 node isoparametric planar or axisymmetric finite element

Hollings, Jeffrey P.; Wilson, Edward L.

UCB/SESM-1978/03, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1978, 30 pages (500/C23/78/03)

The element presented is a two-dimensional planar triangle or quadrilateral which may be arbitrarily oriented in three-dimensional space. In its own plane, the element may represent plane stress, plane strains, or axisymmetric idealizations. The element is described by four to nine nodes. A triangular element may be specified by defining two of the corner nodes of the element to be coincidental. This is treated as a degenerate quadrilateral and requires no special formulation. Temperature-dependent, isotropic, or orthotropic material properties may be specified. Four inplane element loads are possible, temperature, pressure, gravity, and centrifugal. Stresses may be requested at up to six points in the plane of the element.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-78-03.pdf (1 MB)