Lattice Spring Models for Shell Structures

The interest in the numerical analysis of solid continua by spring cell substitutes instead of finite elements and the non-exhaustive state of the art occasioned two complementary doctoral dissertations at the ISD in Stuttgart devoted to the spring cell substitution of continua. The one aims at the exploration of the limits of the approximation of defective bar-spring models, the other extends to a rigorous condensed representation of the continuum by introducing additional angular springs.

The DAAD project “Einsatz von Stabgittermodellen für Schalentragwerke - Employment of Spring Lattice Models for Shell Structures” is conceived as to investigate the utility of the spring cell models of the ISD in the context of actual structures, and to prove them against the expertise available at Coimbra University in this area. To this end, the application of the models for linear elastic, nonlinear elastic and elastoplastic shells is investigated. The investigation includes, apart from different material models, the sensitivity to mesh distortion.