Advances in one-point quadrature shell elements

A one-point quadrature element is developed for shells which overcomes two drawbacks of a similar element developed previously by the senior author and co-workers. The kinematics are improved so that the element is accurate for warped configurations, such as the twisted beam. A nodal projection is added and as result the element passes the quadratic transverse-deflection patch test. The element is applied to a number of test problems which illustrate its effectiveness. One of these is the patch test, and a method for implementing the patch test in an explicit dynamic program is described.