Some computational aspects of a group theoretic finite element approach to the buckling and postbuckling analyses of plates and shells-of-revolution

Progress in the application of group theoretic methods to the nonlinear bifurcation analysis of symmetric structures has provided new hope in understanding the global postbuckling behavior of symmetric thin shell structures. However, what is still lacking in the computational mechanics community is a general purpose FE code with a group theoretic capability designed to take ‘optimal’ advantage of existing symmetry. This paper addresses some of the important issues associated with developing such a code—the long term goal being to provide structural analysts with new numerical tools for doing careful global analyses of imperfection sensitive structures which may eventually lead to more accurate predictions of the maximum load-carrying capacity of thin imperfection sensitive shell structures.