A curved cylindrical shell finite element

A simplified form of Cantin and Clough's cylindrical shell element, reducing the size of the element stiffness matrix from 24 × 24 to 20 × 20, is presented, and the two elements compared by solving several problems. Comparison is also made with results obtained from triangular elements, presented by Cowper et al. (1970). If a parameter based on solution time is used as a convergence criterion instead of the number of degrees of freedom, the new element is found to be superior to all others considered. The new element has the added advantage over that of Cantin and Clough's and all other high degree displacement function finite elements, that it avoids boundary conditions that have no obvious corresponding forces.