Abstract
An eight-node lumped-parameter brick element, suitable for modeling flexible multibody shell components, is described. The element is composed of twelve truss sub-elements for modeling the membrane and bending modes and six surface shear elements for modeling the shear and warping modes. The element is strategically designed to eliminate locking and spurious modes. Cartesian nodal coordinates are used as degrees-of-freedom with no rotational degrees-of-freedom. This simplifies the coordinate transformations and inertia calculations. A total Lagrangian displacement formulation where the element deformations are measured relative to the unstressed element is employed. The equations of motion are integrated using an explicit temporal integration algorithm. Standard finite element and flexible multibody dynamics test problems are solved to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the element. Also, the use of the element in a practical flexible multibody dynamics application, namely, deployment of a large space structure, is demonstrated.
