‫بسم اهلل الرحمن الرحيم‬

‫نقابة المهندسين األردنيين‬

‫لجنة المهندسين الشباب المدنية‬
‫‪Shell Element Internal Forces‬‬

‫‪Eng.Salam Hatem‬‬ ‫‪eng.salamhatem@gmail.com‬‬

Output Convention for Shell
Element Internal Forces:
• The shell element internal forces, like
stresses, act throughout the element.
They are present at every point on the
midsurface of the shell element. ETABS
reports values for the shell internal
forces at the element nodes. It is
important to note that the internal forces
are reported as forces and moments per
unit of in-plane length.
Shell Element Faces

• The six faces of a shell: element are defined as the positive 1

face, negative 1 face, positive 2 face, negative 2
face, positive 3 face and negative 3 face as shown in the
figure below. In this definition the numbers 1, 2 and 3
correspond to the local axes of the shell element.
• The positive 1 face of the element is the face that is
perpendicular to the 1-axis of the element whose outward
normal (pointing away from the element) is in the positive 1-
axis direction.
• The negative 1 face of the element is a face that is
perpendicular to the 1-axis of the element whose outward
normal (pointing away from the element) is in the negative 1-
axis direction. The other faces have similar definitions.
Forces for shell element :

• F11 : Axial Force per unit length (+ Tension or -Comp) acting

on the negative or the positive face no.1 and in the direction
of the local axis 1.

• F22: Axial Force per unit length (+ Tension or -Comp) acting

on the negative or the positive face no.2 and in the direction
of the local axis 2.

• F12: Shear Force per unit length (+ Tension or -Comp)

acting on the negative or the positive face no.1 and in the
direction of the local axis 2 . It always equal to F21.

• FMAX ,FMIN : Principal Stresses per unit length (+ Tension

or -Comp) (no shear stresses).
Forces for shell element :

• M11 : Bending Moment per unit length in the direction of

local axis 1 or around local axis 2 (the bending will be in in
the direction of local axis 1).

• M22: Bending Moment per unit length in the direction of

local axis 2 or around local axis 1 (the bending will be in in
the direction of local axis 2).

• M12: Twisting Moment per unit length .

• MMAX ,MMIN : Maximum moments per unit length (no

twisting moments)
Forces for shell element :

• V13 : Shear Force per unit length act on face no.1 in the
direction of local axis 3.

• V13 : Shear Force per unit length act on face no.2 in the
direction of local axis 3.

• VMAX: maximum Shear force .

Stresses for shell element :

• S11 : Direct Axial Stresses acting on face no. 1 (positive or

negative) in local axis 1 direction.

• S22 : Direct Axial Stresses acting on face no. 2

(positive or negative) in local axis 2 direction.

• S12 : Direct Axial Stresses acting on face no. 1

(positive or negative) in local axis 2 direction.
Stresses for shell element :

• SMAX , SMIN : Principal axial stresses ( no shear

stresses).

• S13 : Shear Stress acting on face no. 1 (positive or

negative) in the direction of local axis 3.

S23 : Shear Stress acting on face no. 2 (positive or

negative) in the direction of local axis 3.

SMAXV: Shear Stresses at princip