NURBS-Based Collocation Methods for the Structural Analysis of Shells of Revolution

Abstract

In this work we present a collocation method for the structural analysis of shells of revolution based on Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) interpolation. The method is based on the strong formulation of the equilibrium equations according to Reissner-Mindlin theory, with Fourier series expansion of dependent variables, which makes the problem 1D. Several numerical tests validate convergence, accuracy, and robustness of the proposed methodology, and its feasibility as a tool for the analysis and design of complex shell structures.

Keywords

• shell of revolution
• collocation
• NURBS
• isogeometric
• Reissner-Mindlin