Hourglass stabilization of the penthahedral solid element

A one point quadrature pentahedral solid element with hourglass stabilization is developed for large deformation analysis of elastoplastic solids. This type of element is particularly suited for analysis of shell-like structures where multiple fracturing without any predefined direction takes place in the shell surface. Thus, the element design is motivated by requirements of the analysis of delamination and fracture in multilayered composite shells. The element formulation and the hourglass control procedure are based on the standard assumed strain method for stabilization of solid elements previously developed by other researchers. Several numerical tests, from simple beam bending to fracture analysis of laminated plates have been carried out to assess the performance of the element.