Formulation and evaluation of new triangular, quadrilateral, pentagonal and hexagonal discrete Kirchhoff plate/shell elements

The paper deals with the formulation of plate and shell elements based on the discrete Kirchho7 technique. In the >rst part we review the ?at facet shell elements which have been formulated during the last 30 years. In the second part, we present the formulation of a new family of discrete Kirchho 7 plate=shell elements based on the free formulation. The triangular, quadrilateral, pentagonal and hexagonal elements belong also to the family of semi-Loof elements having only displacements at the corner nodes and one tangential rotation along each side