The quasi-conforming technique was introduced in the 1980’s to meet the challenge of inter-elements conforming problems and give a unified treatment of both conforming and nonconforming elements. While the linear formulation is well established, the nonlinear formulation based on the quasi-conforming technique that includes geometric and material nonlinearity is presented in this paper. The formulation is derived in the framework of an updated Lagrangian stress resultant, co-rotational approach. The geometric nonlinear formulation provides solutions to buckling and postbuckling behaviour while the material nonlinear formulation considers the spread of plasticity within the element while maintaining an explicit construction of element matrices. Aside from the elasto-plastic constitutive relation, formulations on laminate composites and reinforced concrete are also presented.

The formulations of laminate composite and reinforced concrete material are present based on the layer concept, the material properties can vary throughout the thickness and across the surface of a shell element. The various failure criteria for laminate composite are included in the formulation which makes it possible to analyses the progressive failure of fibre and matrix. For the reinforced concrete material, the nonlinearities as a result of tensile cracking, tension stiffening between cracks, the nonlinear response of concrete in compression, and the yielding of the reinforcement are considered. The steel reinforcement is modeled as a bilinear material with strain hardening.