Towards improving the MITC9 shell element

Our objective in this paper is to present some results regarding the predictive capabilities of the MITC9 shell element when the tying points in the element are changed. The MITC9 element is a general nine-node shell element based on the formulation approach of using mixed-interpolated tensorial components. Different tying points are very simple to implement and are not decreasing the computational efficiency of the element. Hence, the use of the “best” tying points is clearly of value.