What are the best practices regarding meshing slab/shell elements?
The main disadvantages of solid element in FEM with linear approximations for bending type problems is
LOCKING - phenomenon during bending -- the solid element will show the bending behavior much stiffer in comparison with analytical solution.
LOCKING is higher if the solid element looks like shell (thickness is smaller than two other sizes).
It can be resolved for solid element only by taking many elements for the thickness, therefore, leading to many FE's.
In order to eliminate the locking problems the Solid-Shell FE is introduced, in which
EAS or ANS methods to remove locking are implemented is presented even for FE with quadratic shape functions, because the locking phenomena can be found also for FE quadratic shape functions.
It can be resolved for solid element only by taking many elements for the thickness, therefore, leading to many FE's.
In order to eliminate the locking problems the Solid-Shell FE is introduced, in which
EAS or ANS methods to remove locking are implemented is presented even for FE with quadratic shape functions, because the locking phenomena can be found also for FE quadratic shape functions.
the solid element will show the bending behavior much stiffer in comparison with analytical solution.