Software Supported Implementation of Efficient Solid-Shell Finite Elements

The operations necessary for the computation of the interna l nodal force vector are in general the most time-consuming parts of an explicit FE-ana lysis. The paper presents an implementation concept for element routines for volumetri c shell – the so-called SolidShell – elements based on the application of the symbolic pro gramming tool ACEGEN, a plug-in for the computer algebra software M ATHEMATICA . This symbolic implementation means that vector and matrix operations and differentiatio ns do not have to be computed in advance in order to realize a conversion into a programmin g la guage. Consequently, programming errors can be avoided almost completely and les s time is required for the implementation. Program code in F ORTRAN is generated and simultaneously optimized automatically, which leads to very efficient routines compa red to manually implemented code.