Advances in subdivision finite elements for thin shells

We review the fundamentals of the subdivision nite element method and introduce its extension to the analysis of thin shells with non-smooth and non-manifold features. The subdivision methods are a generalisation of splines and are able to generate, at least,C 1 continuous smooth surfaces on irregular meshes. In subdivision nite elements, subdivision surfaces are used for describing the reference geometry and the deformed geometry of a thin shell in accordance with the isogeometric analysis method