This paper on "Dimensional Adaptivity of Arbitrary Elastic Thin-Walled Structures in Disturbed Subdomains" was presented at the 5th International Conference on Reliability of Finite Element Methods for Engineering Applications - 10-12 May 1995, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Introduction to Paper

Modeling of thin-walled beams, plates and shells as 1 D-and 2D-BVP's due to kinematical hypotheses, e.g. the normal hypothesis, is valid in undisturbed domains. Disturbances near supports and free edges, in the vicinity of concentrated loads and at thickness jumps cannot be described by 1D- and 2D-BVP's. In these disturbed subdomains dimensional adaptivity has to be performed with respect to the 3D-theory. Dimensional adaptivity (d-adaptivity) coupled with an h- or p-adaptivity becomes necessary in order to guarantee a reliable overall solution.