Non-standard Formulations and Discretization Methods for Thin-walled Structures

In recent years, an increased activity in the scientific field of formulations and discretization methods for plate and shell structures can be observed. The topic has received a major boost due to the popularity of the isogeometric concept along with finite element methods using NURBS or B-Splines as shape functions. Here, one of the decisive features is a relatively easy control of continuity of shape functions, facilitating discretization of problems for which the weak form has a variational index of 2 or larger. This applies, for instance, to the classical Kirchhoff-Love thin shell model, which currently experiences a renaissance.
The proposed mini-symposium invites all contributions from the field of non-standard formulations and discretization methods for thin-walled structures, both from method development and application. Typical topics are expected to be, but not restricted to: spline-based discretizations, formulations based on subdivision surfaces, non-local (patch-based) or smoothed finite elements, meshless methods, finite cell methods, isogeometric analysis and integration of CAD and CAE, rotation-free formulations for plates and shells, non-linear analyses, treatment of boundary conditions or trimmed surfaces as well as multi-layer and solid shell elements.